AJ McKee on Bellator-PFL Bout Against Clay Collard: ‘It’s The Perfect Way to Start a Big Pay-Per-View with a Bang’
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AJ McKee: “There is a price to pay for trying to walk me down”
Over the last three years, a number of stars emerged in Bellator. For a moment, none shined brighter than AJ McKee.
When McKee defeated Patrício “Pitbull” Freire in the summer of 2021, a flash of lightning performance that ended with a first-round submission victory, there was no doubt who controlled the future of the featherweight division.
Courtesy Bellator
Yet that script never materialized. Instead, it was quickly halted.
McKee lost a close rematch to Freire the following spring, then competed at lightweight in his next three fights. Despite winning repeatedly, with the only blemish for McKee (21-1) that one razor-thin defeat suffered against Freire, he faded from the spotlight.
During Bellator 301 in November, after defeating Sidney Outlaw by unanimous decision, McKee was not even handed the microphone in the cage during the promotion’s final pay-per-view before its merger with PFL.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance at Bellator 301,” said McKee. “And I didn’t have the opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude to the production team and everyone involved in making Bellator so successful. Coming full circle, it’s an honor to be on the first Bellator card with the PFL.”
McKee returns to action on February 24 at the PFL vs. Bellator pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia. He competes in a lightweight bout against the PFL’s Clay Collard, who lost in the finals of the PFL’s 2023 lightweight tournament to Olivier Aubin-Mercier.
“I appreciate the opportunity,” said McKee. “It shows the respect they have for my craft. There are a lot of opportunities in 2024, and this is my chance to become champ again.”
Courtesy PFL
Even with McKee’s destiny delayed, he believes the sojourn to greatness will be worth his struggles. In order to forge forward toward the title picture, a victory against Collard is a necessity.
Yet McKee is not entirely sure which title he will pursue next.
“I don’t know,” said McKee, 28. “I still want the trilogy with Patrício. I still see myself as the [featherweight] champ and the best in the world. I’ve always been willing to return to 145 pounds, but it has to be the right fight.
“And I’m comfortable at 155 pounds. Like Conor [McGregor] said, this is the stuck-in-the-mud division. I enjoy it. I’m quicker, and there is less weight to cut. It’s a proving ground for me. I have a hit list I want to conquer, and that begins with Clay Collard.”
Asked whether he would consider competing in PFL’s featherweight tournament, McKee expressed his concern.
“An entire tournament at 145 pounds?” said McKee. “That’s a lot. 155 has brought back a lot of the fun for me. Cutting weight is not fun. But for the right fight, yes, it’s strictly business.”
Courtesy Bellator
Even though McKee has won all three bouts at lightweight, he has yet to deliver a knockout. In fact, a weakness has been his striking prowess. The majority of the victory against Outlaw was spent on the ground.
“I wasn’t too happy with the performance, spending 12 out of 15 minutes on my back,” said McKee. “I was expecting Outlaw to wrestle, but not to catch my kicks and wrestle. On my end, my fault was that I should have stopped kicking in the third round so I wouldn’t get taken down. At 155 pounds, I hadn’t felt pressure like that on top. I knew what he was capable of, but I didn’t want to get back to my feet while he was holding me. I looked for an opening in his guard to cause a little bit of damage. So that became my game plan: cause damage on the ground, beat him up.
“My fight [last summer in Japan] with Satoshi [Roberto de Souza], that was a fight where I was intrigued with the ground game. He’s an elite-level grappler, and I wanted to beat him at his own game.”
While his submission arsenal is always a threat, the bout against Collard is the ideal moment for McKee to implement his striking game.
“I want a fashionable win, a knockout, and that’s what I’ve been training and preparing for on February 24,” said McKee. “This isn’t a fight where he’s going to come and take me down. I know he’s going to walk me down and be in my face the entire time. At the same time, he knows there is a price to pay for trying to walk me down.”
Stardom still awaits McKee. Whether it takes place in Bellator or PFL is yet-to-be determined, but he can take the next step on that ascent with a resounding victory against Collard.
“Clay is a scrapper, we’re going to be on our feet,” said McKee. “It’s the perfect way to start a big pay-per-view with a bang.”
Alexander Volkanovski poised to break Ilia Topuria’s undefeated streak
Alexander Volkanovski reached the lowest point of his professional career this past fall.
With less than two weeks’ notice, Volkanovski accepted an extraordinarily difficult challenge, a lightweight title bout against Islam Makhachev. It ended in a devastating knockout loss, with Makhachev dominating all three minutes of the fight before putting Volkanovski to sleep.
Courtesy UFC
Volkanovski returns to the cage next week at UFC 298. He defends his featherweight title against the highly dangerous Ilia Topuria, an undefeated fighter brimming with confidence–and seemingly smelling blood.
But it is premature to discount Volkanovski’s chances, especially given the circumstances of his last loss.
Being largely overlooked against Topuria is precisely the type of motivation Volkanovski needs. This is especially relevant in a division that has failed to give Volkanovski adequate competition. He has won all 11 of his featherweight bouts in the UFC, who only has 14 fights altogether.
While I still think Volkanovski (26-3) will emerge victorious, this fight will be telling. At 35, we will see in real-time whether Volkanovski is still elite–and against an opponent eight years younger.
Despite the odds beginning to stack up against him, this is another chance for Volkanovski to remind the fight world why he has no peers at featherweight.
