UFC 333 Just won a fight that promises violence from the first minute. Losene Keita will face Aaron Pico next 24 October in Abu Dhabi after the decommission of Arnold Allen, turning a setback for the billboard into one of the most explosive clashes of the night.
On paper, it's hard to imagine a much more attractive fight.
Keita arrives after his spectacular victory against Muhammad Naimov in UFC Paris. The Belgian only 2:54 of the first round to connect a definitive right and get the first triumph of his trajectory within UFC.
It was a victory I needed.
Keita had arrived at the company with the reputation of being one of the best pen weights competing outside the UFC. Champion in two divisions of OKTAGON and used to ending fights, his landing had not been easy: he lost by split decision in front of Nathaniel Wood in their debut after having previously experienced weight-cutting problems.
Paris changed the conversation.
Keita He showed again what his hype had built in Europe: speed, explosiveness and a real ability to turn off the lights of a rival in any exchange.
Now UFC gives you an immediate much greater opportunity.
Aaron Pico occupied Top 15 of the featherweight and remains one of the most particular talents of the MMA United States.
His career began surrounded by enormous expectations for his extraordinary base of struggle and boxing. Over the years he has turned those tools into a tremendously aggressive style: nine of his fourteen professional victories have come by KO/TKO and two others for submission.
But Pico also knows the other side of that aggressiveness.
Your debut in UFC ended up in the worst possible way when Lerone Murphy knocked him out with a spectacular rotating elbow. That defeat again recalled a constant of his career: when Pico fight, there's danger in both directions.
Your response was important.
In April he defeated Patricio Pitbull by unanimous decision and demonstrated a much more controlled version, capable of using his boxing and tools without turning every minute into a coin in the air.
Now you'll have a rival ahead of you who'll probably try to bring you back into chaos.
Keita has 28 years.
Pico, 29.
Both are in full maturity fsica, The two come from getting a major victory and none can afford too many steps back if you want to enter into serious pen weight conversation.
The confrontation is also interesting because both can do harm in different ways.
Keita probably want space to take advantage of his speed and find those explosive blows that made him stand out in Europe.
Pico has an additional tool that can completely change the fight: your wrestling.
If you decide to mix downs, pressure against the cage and boxing, you can force Keita to answer questions that do not appear when the combat becomes only an exchange of blows.
But if both decide to check who hits the hardest, any tactical analysis can last very little.
And that's exactly where the appeal is.
We're not looking at two fighters designed to manage fifteen minutes looking for a safe decision. Between them they accumulate a huge amount of endings and both have enough power to convert a small error at the end of the fight.
Besides, the prize is important.
Pico already occupies a position within the ranking. Keita gets the chance to jump straight into that area just a few weeks after his victory in Paris.
Winning in Abu Dhabi could place either one or two big wins from the really important division fights.
And the stage can't be better.
UFC 333 will be led by Alexander Volkanovski against Movsar Evloev by the featherweight championship.
That means that Keita and Pico will compete the same night in which the immediate future of their own category will be decided.
While Volkanovski and Evloev argue who's in charge, two of the most explosive fighters who have been pushing from below will try to prove that they're ready to approach them.
Arnold Allen was originally supposed to be the rival of Pico.
His discharge seemed bad news for UFC 333.
The solution may have ended up being even more fun.
Losene Keita against Aaron Pico.
Two explosive fighters, two men with something to prove and a fight where it's hard to imagine too many steps back.
It has all the ingredients to be one of the great combats of UFC 333.
Now we just need to check if he's up to the hype.