“AARON PICO MAKES IT LOOK EASY AGAINST LOSENE KEITA! #UFC333,” THE MMA GURU wrote on X shortly after Saturday’s featherweight fight. “NASTY FIRST ROUND TKO FINISH! PUTS KEITA ON SKATES WITH ONE CLEAN RIGHT HAND.”
He kept going in the same post: “Smart move to grapple early, time for a big name for Pico. Sucks for Keita, he had a chance to be a star but is lowkey chinny fr.”
He wasn’t the only one posting fast. Spinnin Backfist wrote “AARON PICO WITH A NASTY KNOCKOUT” and “THATS A BAD DUDE.” Dovy posted the Round 1 TKO and, four minutes later, followed with “✅Fraud checked: Losene Keita.” MMA Sucka collected reactions from UFC fighters under the headline “Pico is a problem,” and Heavy reported that Pico issued a statement after the win.
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The word “fraud” sits badly next to Keita’s résumé. The Guinean-born Belgian was born in Conakry and moved to Europe at 11. After four months in prison, a friend pulled him into an MMA gym, and he went on to win the Oktagon lightweight title twice and the featherweight title once, with interim belts in both divisions along the way. That’s a lot of work to wave off after one bad night against a wrestler who has been preparing for this since grade school.
Pico has. The Whittier, California native started wrestling at four and boxing at 10. He won a U17 world title in 2013 and was an Olympic alternate at 65 kilograms in 2016. Then he skipped college to chase MMA. His first 17 pro fights came in Bellator, where the hype arrived well before the results did. He’s now 15-5, trains at Jackson-Wink MMA and sits at No. 11 in the Knockout Daily featherweight rankings. The Meta UFC rankings had him at No. 14 as of Sept. 19.
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The sequence THE MMA GURU described tells you a lot about how far Pico has come. He grappled early, made Keita think about the takedown, and then landed the right hand. For years the knock on Pico was that he hadn’t fully merged the two skill sets. Saturday looked like a fighter who had.
Pico’s next opponent hasn’t been announced in the available reporting. At No. 11, though, the call for “a big name” is a fair one, and the matchmakers will have heard it by now.
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