Featherweight contender Arnold Allen has withdrawn from his UFC 333 fight against Aaron Pico, sources told MMA Fighting's Mike Heck.
Losene Keita has reportedly agreed to face Pico at the Oct. 24 event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Allen has been rehabbing from past treatments and won't be ready to compete next month, Heck adds. This was a possibility before the fight was booked, and Allen hopes to return to the Octagon before the end of the year.
Pico is coming off his first UFC win, a unanimous decision over Patricio "Pitbull" Freire at UFC 327 in April. The former Bellator star suffered a knockout loss to Lerone Murphy in his debut in August 2025 and is 1-1 in the promotion.
Keita, a former Oktagon two-division champion, is also making his third UFC appearance after going 1-1 in his first two outings. Most recently, he scored a first-round knockout win over Muhammad Naimov at UFC Paris earlier in September.
UFC 333 will be headlined by a featherweight title bout between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev. It'll also feature a trilogy fight between bantamweight champion Petr Yan and former champ Merab Dvalishvili.
