Losene Keita already has his next fight booked. After a highlight-reel win earlier this month in Paris, the Belgian fighter has now accepted a short-notice fight against Aaron Pico at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.
Keita is replacing Arnold Allen. Multiple sources told Heavy.com about the change after an initial report from MMA Fighting. The fight takes place on October 24th at the Etihad Arena. A huge opportunity for Keita to make his mark. He is currently unranked, while Pico holds the No. 12 spot in the UFC Media rankings and No. 13 in the UFC Meta rankings.
Knockout Power In Both Hands
Losene Keita is one of the newer faces in the UFC featherweight division. The Belgian fighter signed last year with the UFC after a successful stay at the OKTAGON MMA promotion, where he won both the featherweight and lightweight titles. Keita entered his debut with a massive amount of hype, but missed weight for his scheduled bout against Patricky Pitbull. Because of the weight miss, Pitbull declined the matchup, forcing the UFC to cancel the fight. The UFC is notorious for its lack of leniency regarding weight misses by debuting fighters, but they made an exception and granted Keita a second chance.
Earlier this year, in March, he made his official UFC debut against Nathaniel Wood. In a close fight, Wood won via split decision. A setback for Keita, but the Belgian fighter bounced back in an amazing way by knocking out Muhammad Naimov earlier this month in Paris. It earned him one of the four performance-of-the-night bonuses. Keita was hoping for a step up in competition, and he got exactly that on short notice against Aaron Pico.
Working His Way Back Up
Much like Keita, Pico was a major acquisition for the UFC last year. The key distinction is that Pico was already a household name for American fans, whereas Keita had primarily built his reputation making waves across Europe. The former wrestling champion and Bellator MMA fighter brought lots of hype with him to the UFC. The matchmakers booked him for his first fight against undefeated top contender Movsar Evloev. Unfortunately, Evloev had to pull out with an injury and was replaced by the then-undefeated Lerone Murphy.
Pico started well early on but walked into a spinning back elbow. A highlight-reel knockout win for Murphy and a massive setback for Pico, who was announced as the next big thing in the division. Pico returned earlier this year for his sophomore fight in the UFC against Patricio Pitbull. Pico fought a smart and solid fight and secured his first win in the Octagon by unanimous decision. He was supposed to fight Arnold Allen next, but will take on Losene Keita after Allen pulled out of the fight.
UFC 333 – Abu Dhabi (October 24th)
- Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev
- Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili
- Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Ramazan Temirov
- Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev
- Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita
- Dominick Reyes vs. Azamat Murzakanov
- Abus Magomedov vs. Cam Rowston
- Nikita Krylov vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev
- Grant Dawson vs. Nurullo Aliev
Unexpected Opportunity for Losene Keita at UFC 333 in Abi Dhabi