Pico vs Keita is official at UFC 333: Arnold Allen withdraws, and the fight Keita announced himself now has a name

Pico vs Keita is the new featherweight bout on the October 24 card in Abu Dhabi. Arnold Allen (21-4) is out, not through a new injury but because rehabilitation from earlier treatment has run past the date. Aaron Pico (14-5) stays on the card and now faces Losene Keita (17-2), which is exactly the booking Keita described on September 17 without naming anyone.

Fight card, results and fighters UFC 333: Volkanovski vs. Evloev →

Key takeaways

Arnold Allen (21-4), ranked sixth at featherweight, has withdrawn from UFC 333 on October 24 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. It is not a new injury: he is still rehabbing from past treatment and ran out of time.
Aaron Pico (14-5) remains on the card and now meets Losene Keita (17-2), a bout confirmed roughly twenty-four hours after Keita said publicly that he had accepted a short-notice fight against a top 15 featherweight.
The card is headlined by Alexander Volkanovski (28-4) against the unbeaten Movsar Evloev (20-0).

Pico vs Keita: what changed on the card

Allen out, and not for the reason you would assume

The withdrawal is not a fresh injury. Allen had been rehabilitating from earlier treatment, the recovery has gone well, and the calendar simply did not stretch far enough. “He has been rehabbing from past treatments, but not enough time between now and Abu Dhabi to be ready to fight,” reported Mike Heck of MMA Fighting. The possibility had reportedly been raised when the matchup was first discussed, which is why the replacement arrived the same day.

What the division loses

Allen at number six against Pico at thirteen was a contender’s fight with a clear ranking consequence. It also would have been Allen’s third bout of 2026, something he had not managed since his Cage Warriors years in 2014, and that detail is the real cost here. A fighter who finally strings a season together loses the season, not just a night.

Keita said it first, without saying who

A video, then an announcement

On September 17 Losene Keita posted a promotional video saying he had accepted a fight on short notice against a featherweight inside the top 15. He named no opponent, no card and no date, and nothing had been announced by the promotion. We wrote at the time that the link some outlets drew to the Allen and Pico bout was speculation and would be treated as such until a withdrawal was confirmed. It was confirmed the next day, and Keita is the replacement.

Twelve days after Paris

Keita comes off a first-round knockout of Muhammad Naimov at UFC Paris on September 5, a walk-off finish that earned him a 100,000 dollar bonus. At 17-2 he is unranked, with a single UFC defeat, and he is doing the only thing that reliably jumps the queue in this promotion: being available when a name drops out.

He has been rehabbing from past treatments, but not enough time between now and Abu Dhabi to be ready to fight.
— Mike Heck, MMA Fighting, on Arnold Allen's withdrawal

What the fight is actually worth

Asymmetric risk

Pico had a ranked opponent and now has a dangerous unranked one, which is the worst trade available in a division. A win over a replacement adds little to his position; a loss costs him the ground the Allen booking was meant to gain. Keita carries none of that weight. He had no camp for Pico and no expectation attached to the result.

A short-notice fighter with recent rounds

The usual argument against taking a fight at short notice is conditioning. It applies less here: Keita competed on September 5 and needed less than a round to do it, so he arrives fit rather than depleted. What he lacks is preparation for a specific opponent, and Pico is not a generic one.

Follow UFC 333 with real numbers

Records, finishes, activity and our own ratings for every fighter on this card are kept up to date in the FightHub app. Download it to see the featherweight picture move as the bouts are confirmed.