Morning Report: Aaron Pico says right now Dillon Danis ‘can’t even be mentioned in the same sentence’ as him

Dillon Danis is only 1-0 in his MMA career but the outspoken cohort of Conor McGregor is already making waves outside the Bellator cage. Having come into the sport talking a mound of trash about nearly everyone involved, Danis made quick work of his opponent in his MMA debut, locking up a toehold submission in 90 seconds and then taking aim at the rest of the Bellator roster afterwards. His words have caused prominent fighters like Michael Chandler andAl Iaquinta to openly revile him and now he’s also drawn the attention of fellow blue chip prospect, Aaron Pico.

Speaking with FanSided recently, Pico reacted to Danis’ professional debut as well as his cocksure attitude, saying that while Danis is an acclaimed grappler, he hasn’t done anything yet in MMA to warrant his attitude and that the attention Danis gets comes mostly from his association with UFC superstar Conor McGregor.

“I didn’t watch it live but I did see that he got that leg lock,” said Pico of Danis’ performance. “I think that – yeah, he can think what he wants. I think that a lot of the attention that he’s gotten is because he’s on Conor McGregor’s nuts and I think a lot of people will say that I’m right. On the ground, absolutely. I’m sure he’s very, very good. As far as being an overall fighter, we haven’t seen it yet. But hey, I wish him nothing but the best, but a lot of his attention has come from Conor McGregor.”

Pico and Danis are both elite MMA prospects that made their professional MMA debuts under the Bellator banner. Pico is an accomplished amateur wrestler who narrowly missed out on making the United States Olympic team last cycle and was also a junior Golden Gloves national champion in 2009. Danis is one of the best grapplers on the planet, having won multiple world championships at the brown-belt level. But while Danis was triumphant in his debut, Pico came up short, tapping out to veteran fighter Zach Freeman in just 24 seconds last fall. Since then, Pico has rattled off two impressive knockout wins over legitimate competition, and that, he says, is the biggest difference between Danis and himself.

“Like I said, he can think what he thinks but when but when he gets into some big fights, we’ll have to see,” said Pico. “He fought a guy that’s 2-4. Fight a guy with a winning record and we’ll see. Put your money where your mouth is. Me? I fight guys with winning records, guys that are older than me, tougher challenges. When he fights guys with winning records, then we can have that discussion. Other than that, he can’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as me.”

Danis’ victim at Bellator 198 was Kyle Walker, a 2-4 fighter who had been submitted twice before. Conversely, Freeman was 8-2 when he defeated Pico and Pico’s two wins have come against opposition with a combined 19-6 record. That being said, it doesn’t appear that Danis cares much about the “quality of competition” part of his resume right now, or at least he doesn’t want a fellow prospect using that as a reason to take shots at him as yesterday, Danis took to Twitter to respond to Pico’s statement, and throwing Pico’s submission loss to Freeman back in the young fighter’s face.

Since Danis is likely to continue his MMA career as a welterweight, and Pico is currently competing at featherweight, the two prospects are unlikely to stand across from one another inside the cage but Pico currently has other things to worry about. Pico is set to fight Lee Morrison next weekend at Bellator 199.