Henry Cejudo has very high hopes for the winner of Lerone Murphy vs. Aaron Pico at UFC 319.
Murphy (16-0-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) welcomes Pico (13-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) to the octagon in the Aug. 16 co-main event at United Center in Chicago (ESPN+, ESPN, pay-per-view).
Cejudo is touting the winner of that fight to dethrone UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (27-5 MMA, 14-4 UFC), a take that left his co-host Kamaru Usman completely baffled.
“I personally feel like the winner of this fight is going to fight Alexander Volkanovski, and I also feel like the winner of this fight is going to become our next champion,” Cejudo said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Kamaru Usman. “All due respect to Volk, but these young guns – Lerone Murphy is fighting Aaron Pico. Aaron Pico is in his f*cking prime – power, wrestling.
“He’s been a man child since he was a kid, already competing at the highest levels while in high school beating world champions. Then Lerone Murphy, what he’s been able to do to a lot of these fighters – undefeated, very tricky, brings in a lot of the wrestling. He’s just different. He’s like a Merab (Dvalishvili) – they’re pretty unpredictable, and how is it he’s able to use that wrestling. I think this co-main event is the most competitive fight on this whole fight card.”
Pico is a slight favorite to hand Murphy his first career loss, and Cejudo sees that happening.
“Honestly, I’ve got Aaron Pico,” Cejudo said.
