Losene Keita was not expected to be part of Saturday’s UFC 333 card in Abu Dhabi, yet he will be, taking on Aaron Pico after Arnold Allen dropped out of the fight.
“Surprise, surprise,” as Keita (17-2) put it during Wednesday’s media day for the event.
Asked how the fight came together, the former Oktagon MMA champ revealed that he’d been targeting the winner of Pico vs. Allen. “I got called after my fight in Paris. I think two weeks after my fight if I’m not mistaken. Something like that,” he recalled.
“It was one of the fights I asked for. After my fight in Paris, I was like ‘I want to fight the winner of Pico and Allen.’” One of Keita’s friends then tipped him off that Allen might pull out. “I called the matchmakers, my manager, said ‘I want to fight in Abu Dhabi, I don’t care against who.’” Two weeks later came the response: Allen was out, Keita was in.
Both men are 1-1 in the UFC, and both built their names elsewhere before arriving in the promotion. In Pico’s case, that was in Bellator, where he quickly rose up the featherweight ranks. For Keita, it was Europe’s Oktagon MMA, where he claimed both featherweight and lightweight gold.
Much has been made of Pico being knocked out by Lerone Murphy in his UFC debut, though he’d later bounce back against old Bellator rival Patricio Pitbull. Still, he was also stopped by Adam Borics and Henry Corrales earlier in his career, leading to a narrative that Pico might be a bit “chinny.”
“I see a lot of chin allegations on social media about him, but that don’t concern me,” Keita stated on that front. “Fighters, we evolve, his chin gets better maybe, or maybe not. I don’t really care. I know I’m a guy, every time I throw a shot it’s to hurt him. I don’t really care how it’s going to end. The only thing I know, I’m going to beat him. I think I’m a better martial artist than him, and it’s my time.”
Watch the full UFC 333 media day appearance by Losene Keita above.