Losene Keita’s should-have-been UFC debut quickly evaporated in a tidal wave of criticism due to a three-pound weight miss. But according to his manager, the journey back from rock bottom has already begun.
Keita (16-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC missed weight by three pounds for his Sept. 6 bout vs. Patricio “Pitbull” in Paris. In his biggest and most spotlighted moment, Keita hit his lowest. A tidal wave of public criticism followed, catalyzed to new heights days later when a video of Keita begging “Pitbull” to take the fight was posted to social media.
Pedro Faustino, of Tough Media Europe, recently told MMA Junkie the bottom line is there’s no excuse for his client’s bungle – but thinks more context could paint a clearer picture for the general public to understand what happened.
Biology played its role, but so did short notice, Faustino said. Keita was a bit heavier than normal, given his camp was four weeks as opposed to eight. But given his history of not struggling to make 145 or 155, his team thought even the short notice would not be an issue. They miscalculated.
“(Waiting for a UFC contract), there was a little bit of a moment where we thought, ‘OK, it’s not going to happen in Paris. It’s four weeks until Paris. Something happened. Maybe it’ll happen in Rio. Maybe it’ll happen in Qatar or Abu Dhabi,'” Faustino said. “We didn’t know and then suddenly it came. Of course, we would not say no to a offer like this. We were asked if we could make the weight. We replied two times that yes, we could do it. The reason was he never missed weight. Keita made three title fights at featherweight – with no allowance in the title fights. He always made weight. So basically, in our heads, Keita’s body usually works good on making weight.”
Faustino said Keita typically makes weight the night before weigh-ins. He’s made featherweight championship weight three times prior and has never missed weight. This time, the weight wasn’t coming off, Faustino said. He spent much of the night trying (and failing) to hit the mark. Eventually, the team concluded there was an element of beating their heads against the wall and decided to halt cutting.
“He arrived to Paris lighter than Patricio,” Faustino said. “Everything was going good. … It was not like that. His body broke. His body gave up. He stopped sweating. I think at a certain point, it messed with his head, also, like, ‘My body is not reacting. I’m not sweating.’ He was not sweating already for a couple of hours. I feel like a lot of people say a lot of bullsh*t on the internet. Like, ‘He did not even try it,’ this and that. Man, he was, from 7 o’clock the day before, starting to lose weight. It was like 12 hours of losing weight, in a row, without stopping. In the moment, his body stopped and he couldn’t react.”
Weight missed, fight canceled
When it came time to face the music, Keita went to weigh-ins and tipped the scale at 148 pounds. He crossed paths with “Pitbull,” who was understandably unhappy with the miss. The French commission was willing to let the fight happen, and Keita offered “Pitbull” 50 percent of his purse, according to Faustino. But as a video later posted by Patricky Freire showed, “Pitbull” was not having any of an animated and rehydrating Keita’s attempts to strike a deal for a catchweight early in the weigh-in window.
Faustino said it was well within “Pitbull’s” right to decline the bout, but he thinks the former Bellator champion misread Keita’s effort level in trying to make weight, which only made him angrier and less willing to partake. He also theorized that “Pitbull” (who is also represented in a different wing of Tough Media) disliked the matchup in general, which contributed to the decision to pass on the adjusted offer.
“This fight would normally happen anyway in the UFC,” Faustino said. “But let’s see ‘Pitbull’s’ side. He didn’t want this fight. Never. From the beginning. He wanted a ranked guy, above him, to give him a shot, to beat the guy, and go back to a possible title eliminator. This is what ‘Pitbull’ wanted. He didn’t want to fight the guy with a lot of hype in Europe, fighting in his country. ‘Pitbull’ didn’t want anything of that. He had to do it and he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ He didn’t want to fight Keita because he was unranked and just came. He had everything to lose, let’s be honest. If ‘Pitbull’ loses the fight for some reason, he was also in a very bad spot.
“I think what ‘Pitbull’ thought at that time was, first of all, what he saw. This guy is eating and drinking and he still has one hour-and-a-half. ‘Pitbull’ thought that was disrespectful. I understand that. He didn’t have all the info. He only got all the info later, that the guy was actually suffering all night. I cannot say nothing. ‘Pitbull’ accepted the fight on short notice, just like Keita. It’s true that ‘Pitbull’ was training because he wanted to fight in Rio. He was getting fit for the possibility of that. ‘Pitbull’ was fit. He’s an athlete. He knows how to do things. I genuinely can not say nothing to him in his position. It was a fight he didn’t want, a guy he didn’t want, in a place he didn’t want, and then he still had to give three pounds to the guy. I understand it.”
An uncertain but hopeful future
In the end, the fight was canceled, much to the disappointment of the promotion and fans. Rumors flew that Keita had been cut on the spot from the promotion. Faustino did not deny that was the indication given to them in the immediate, but also said the promotion has not cut Keita. Furthermore, comments made by UFC executive vice president Dave Shaw at the Paris post-fight news conference indicated Keita is likely safe. The future is optimistic, he suggested.
“I cannot say that rumor is false. It’s not, Faustino said. “At a certain point, I think when that happened and everybody had their heads heated, because I think everybody wanted to see that fight, including everybody inside the UFC. … From a UFC perspective, when they saw that fight was not happening, I think they were pretty, pretty, pretty upset. At a certain point, there was a rumor he might get cut. It was a very, very difficult 72 hours for Keita, to be honest. I think it was the most 72 hours that he got. Of course, our hearts relaxed a little bit – but just a little bit – when Dave Shaw said, ‘No, no, no,’ and said he was happy to keep him on the roster or something like that. I don’t remember the exact words, so I don’t want to make a mistake. But it seems like his words were saying he’s safe for now. But we were afraid, I’m not going to lie for you.
“We didn’t sleep for two days, thinking this possibility could happen. I think at a certain point, it’d be very unfair. But I understand also how the UFC was mad because of all the hype that fight had, all the people who wanted to see that fight. Suddenly, that fight was off the card. You know why I think this was so bad? Because until we accepted it, expectations on this fight were so big that the disappointment of it not happening was even bigger.”
As for what’s next for Keita, Faustino said his client still wants featherweight and still wants “Pitbull.” They also recognize it’ll be zero tolerance for a screw-up going forward and will take whatever opportunity they can get.
Keita has not spoken in-depth publicly about the mishap, though he commented a few times on social media. Faustino is confident that despite the challenges of falling on the biggest stage, his client will pick himself back up, dust himself off, and win the fans over.
“I think when he woke up on that (fight) day and saw what happened, when he looked around, he thought he was in Hell,” Faustino said. “… I know how many guys he had to beat to be here. This was his dream. He refused big, big offers to fulfill this dream. Suddenly, seeing this dream go in the toilet, I never saw him like that. I think it’s also the process of learning. … I think he will overcome this. I think this probably had to happen in his life for him to understand how things are different in the UFC. The exposure you have in the UFC, it can make your life Hell or a dream, because of the exposure. So when you do something bad, you see all of the world against you. When you do something good, it looks like you are Superman. This is the price to pay to be in the UFC. He never had that experience, but I do think this will make him even a better athlete.”
