The UFC’s lightweight division is aging out. The average age of the top ten 155fers has floated around the mark of 35 for quite some time now. It is safe to say that the top guard in perhaps the toughest division in the UFC would no longer be there in the coming years. Don’t believe us? Listen to this! Dustin Poirier is 36 and has already announced he will be retiring soon, and the likes of Justin Gaethje (36), Charles Oliveira (35), and Michael Chandler (38) will probably follow suit. Moreover, Islam Makhachev is also 33, and if we believe his head coach, Javier Mendez, then the Dagestani plans to retire by 35.

And a similar series of events is about to play out in the featherweight division too, as the old guard who haven’t left the division are aging out. While the Dana White-led promotion has no shortage of young up-and-coming talent in the division, you can never have too much of a good thing. Not to mention, succeeding at the very top-most level requires a special type of fighter. So, the idea some fans have suggested is, why not scout for existing talent in the other promotions? The competition there is admittedly not as high as in the UFC, but there are some pretty good fighters.

Take Oktagon MMA’s Losene Keita, for instance. The Belgian is a concurrent double champ in the European MMA promotion and holds titles in the featherweight and lightweight divisions. A veritable knockout artist, the 16-1 Keita is an incredibly exciting striker with one-punch knockout power, who has proven himself to be elite. These qualities are universally loved by fans. Not to mention the only loss on his record was due to a freak foot injury, so there is an argument that he is essentially undefeated.

This is why X user ‘Marlo Stanfield’ made a case for the brawler to be signed to the UFC directly. “If Hunter Campbell and Dana White are smart, they sign @keita_losene before the year ends, the kid is a star. No DWCS s–t debut straight away on a PPV. He can be involved in so many big fights, it’s crazy,” they wrote

Of course, the Contenders’ Series is the main way the UFC likes to recruit. Direct signings are a thing of the past and reserved only for the biggest non-UFC MMA stars like Patricio Pitbull or Aaron Pico. And while Keita has proven himself at Oktagon, it is doubtful he is a big enough star to be signed directly. However, fans have mixed reactions to this take and took to social media to let their thoughts be known.

Fans call on Dana White to sign Losene Keita to the UFC

One fan was very impressed with Losene Keita’s talent and felt that he will not be one of the promising stars who come into the UFC from other promotions but cannot deliver on their hype: “Oh yeah, this dudes legit. Hella people post undefeated fighters, and they are just average vs cans, but you can tell this dude has real skill.” Another felt that the Belgian double champ had clearly proven himself to be worthy of direct signing and even suggested he come through the Contenders’ Series was unfair to him: “The fact that DWCS are even in the discussion is an insult”.

Another was of the opinion that since the UFC had passed on promising MMA talent like KSW lightweight champ Salahdine Parnasse and Bellator’s Paul Hughes because they wanted to be paid well, there is little chance they will have Keita in the UFC and pay him what he must be making at Oktagon at the moment: “They didn’t pay for Parnasse, or Hughes, they’re not gonna pay for Keita either, only happens if Keita is willing to take a pay cut.”

One fan felt that the UFC had already made a mistake by not signing him earlier, and suspected now it may be too late to sign him: “they should have signed him sooooo long ago”. Another, however, was far more skeptical and felt that until the Belgian Oktagon double champ actually proves himself in the UFC, we won’t know how good he really is: “They said that about so many undefeated Japanese stars and they all got d—ed in their debut. There are levels to this s–t”

Another fan, however, was worried that the UFC would not sign Keita simply because they weren’t smart enough to sign a prospect like him the right way: “They are not smart, unfortunately”. Some fans were pretty bullish about the Belgian powerhouse, and felt that he could be a contender in both the lightweight and featherweight divisions of the UFC straight away: “He’s already on the same level as the top 10 fighters in the featherweight and lightweight divisions. The question is whether the UFC will pay him the salary he deserves.”

What do you think about the idea that the UFC should sign Keita?