Patricio Pitbull has revealed he’s declined to fight Losene Kieta at today’s UFC Fight Night 258 event in Paris after his opponent weighed in 3lbs over the featherweight limit yesterday.

Keita, a two-division champion of the Oktagon promotion, had been set to make his promotional debut on three weeks notice against Pitbull in the main card opener, but it’s now been scrapped.

“He said in an interview he was faster, stronger, younger,” Pitbull said in Portuguese during a video posted by the UFC. “I gave him all the advantages besides allowing this fight to happen here in Paris. He drove two hours to get here so there was no suffering. His weight was low, he got here at 163 just like I did. … He had all the advantages and still didn’t make weight, so I wouldn’t give him that advantage. At this stage I don’t fight for money anymore, I fight for legacy, and I won’t give him this guy that advantage. Unfortunately the fight won’t happen.”

Pitbull also claimed that Keita had additional time to cut more weight, but opted not to.

“I’m absolutely sure he didn’t try going to the bath tub [to cut more],” Pitbull said. “There’s plenty of ways [to try]. He was surrounded by kids. There was no one older to put him in place, ‘Stay there, go make weight.’ At 9 a.m. he weighed in, he was over, and instead of trying until 11 a.m., which is the limit, he was eating baby food. F*ck you, man. If you want to blame anyone, blame my opponent. Black Panther, he’s ‘Fat Panther.’”

The 27-year-old Keita had fought at featherweight before during a four-fight stint in Oktagon from 2022-2023 that led to him becoming the 145lb champion, but moved back up to lightweight last year and won four tournament fights to become the champion in that division too.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the UFC grants Keita another opportunity to make his debut, and if so whether he’d be granted another chance to fight at featherweight.

In the mean time, Pitbull is looking to what comes next, and has targeted UFC Fight Night 261 event in Rio de Janeiro on October 11th as an event he’d like to be on as the former two-division Bellator champion looks to improve upon his current 1-1 record in the UFC.