Aaron Pico
Pico's knockout resulted in his first ever MMA win Bellator

MMA prospect Aaron Pico staked his claim for "knockout of the year" after defeating Justin Linn for his first ever victory at Bellator 183.

Pico (1-1 record) made his highly-anticipated MMA debut at Bellator 180 at Madison Square Garden, New York against Zach Freeman in June in what was a lightweight bout.

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There was a lot of hype going into his debut, however, the freestyle Olympian wrestler suffered a knockdown before eventually being submitted via a guillotine choke 24 seconds into the first round.

Three months on from what was a frustrating first fight, Pico made his featherweight debut against Linn on Saturday (September 23) at the SAP Center in San Jose, California and did not disappoint this time.

The 20-year-old came out to brawl while he also used his wrestling before the fight went back to stand-up. Then with 1:15 left in the first round, Pico delivered a huge knockout punch that turned the lights off on Linn.

"First of all, hats off to Justin [Linn]," Pico said following the fight. "He's a great competitor and I knew it was going to be a tough fight. It feels good fighting at 145-pounds. This is my natural weight and it felt great."

"I'm going to have to watch the replay of this fight because I'm not even sure how I hit him, it was just very instinctual. I always knew that I had very powerful hands and I'm not being cocky, I'm just confident because I spar with some of the best boxers in the world over at Team Bodyshop in Long Beach.

"The key to this fight was just relaxing because I knew that as long as I was relaxed in there, my skillset was going to show."

You can watch the knockout below: