Jeremy Kennedy is a well-traveled vet in the sport of MMA. Kennedy has spent time in both the UFC & PFL before signing with Bellator in 2020. Kennedy is coming off his best performance inside the Bellator cage back at Bellator 272 in December where he was able to win a Unanimous Decision against former Bellator featherweight title challenger Emmanuel Sanchez. But Kennedy feels like he still hasn’t had that marquee performance under the Bellator banner
“You can’t be too upset about a performance like that against Sanchez, but I still feel like I still haven’t shown my full game. I like making that statement but I haven’t had a marquee performance where I’m like that’s Jeremy Kennedy, so I’m hoping this is the one.”
Kennedy’s opponent at Bellator 286 is the very talented Aaron Pico (10-3). This is the second time this year that Kennedy has been matched up with Pico as the two were originally supposed to fight back in April at Bellator 277 but a broken orbital bone forced Kennedy to withdraw from the fight.
“It was my last hard day of sparring and got hit with a weird open knuckle on the soft spot of your face. It didn’t really hurt felt like a bag of rocks, my teeth went numb and I just thought something was off. I wasn’t rocked or dazed it just felt weird. I went to the doctor he suggest getting a CT scan because there could be a fracture and at the last moment of something going wrong, it did. I’m just more revved up now I’ve done two fight camps and haven’t got to fight.”
Kennedy respects what Pico brings to the table but feels that Pico is tough to gauge as an opponent due to the level of competition that Pico has faced up until this point.
“He’s doing everything that he should be doing to the guys that he is doing it to. They are all quality opponents, they are all there for a reason but he’s a level above. So when you are fighting guys that are a level below you can make it look really pretty and nasty with no repercussions and I think he hasn’t had much resistance, so he’s been the one that has been swinging the hammer. That’s up to me though I can’t let him be the one swinging the hammer, I have to go in there and dictate it all. I’m looking at him and just thinking that’s not me I would do this here and do that there. Now this is his step up and you are going to see a lot more from both of us”
