Losene Keita’s UFC career is not off to a great start.
The 27-year-old from Belgium missed weight Friday ahead of his scheduled featherweight matchup with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire at UFC Paris and the bout was removed from the card.
Keita was 149 pounds, three pounds over the non-title featherweight limit. Freire weighed 145 pounds, but instead of the fight proceeding at a catchweight, it was cancelled altogether.
“For the first time in 25 fights, I failed to make weight, and it had to happen on my UFC debut,” Keita wrote on social media. “I wanted to continue and would have given everything to make weight, but my body didn’t want it. I sincerely apologize to all my fans. I will be back, like every time I fall in life.”
Keita joined the UFC in August as a two-division champion in OKTAGON, a Czech-based mixed martial arts organization. He won a title in OKTAGON’s 145-pound featherweight division in 2023 before moving up to 155 pounds and winning OKTAGON’s lightweight championship this past December in his most recent fight.
He is 16-1 as a pro with 10 wins by KO/TKO, and his lone loss occurred due to a foot injury he sustained one minute into a title fight two summers ago.
Keita announced he had signed with the UFC on social media earlier in August and the organization subsequently officially confirmed his addition, plus his first opponent.
Freire is a former two-weight Bellator champion. The 38-year-old made his UFC debut earlier this year. He lost a three-round decision to Yair Rodriguez at UFC 314 in April but rebounded with a three-round decision win over Dan Ige at UFC 318 in July.
All other fighters scheduled to compete Saturday at UFC Paris successfully made weight.
Projected bout order for UFC Paris:
— Nassourdine Imavov vs. Caio Borralho
— Benoit Saint Denis vs. Mauricio Ruffy
— Modestas Bukauskas vs. Paul Craig
— Bolaji Oki vs. Mason Jones
— Axel Sola vs. Rhys McKee
— William Gomis vs. Robert Ruchala
— Oumar Sy vs. Brendson Ribeiro
— Marcin Tybura vs. Ante Delija
— Harry Hardwick vs. Kaue Fernandes
— Sam Patterson vs. Trey Waters
— Brad Tavares vs. Robert Bryczek
— Andreas Gustafsson vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
— Shauna Bannon vs. Sam Hughes
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