A.J. McKee appears to be the clear number one contender for Bellator featherweight gold, but things just got shaken up.
This past Saturday night (May 11), 145-pound title holder Patricio Freire challenged Michael Chandler for the lightweight title. The bout headlined Bellator 221, which aired exclusively on DAZN in the United States. Freire won the bout via first-round TKO, becoming a two-division champion.
McKee Has Gold In His Sights, Even At Lightweight
McKee also competed on the Bellator 221 card and he defeated Pat Curran via unanimous decision. Speaking to reporters, McKee said that he’d be willing to move up to lightweight for his title shot:
“Great fight. What belt you wanna fight me for? 45′? 55′? Oh bro, why not? Which belt do you wanna give me? … I’m a big [145-pounder], if you’re gonna give me an extra 10 pounds to come in bigger by all means let’s do it.”
When asked if he was worried that Chandler would get an immediate rematch before “Pitbull” faces him, McKee had the following to say:
“Partially. With the tournament coming up, I don’t know I just beat the former champ. I’m ready for that belt, he’s ready. Chandler’s gonna need some time to recover a little bit. Regardless he did get rocked. You could call it an early stoppage, I feel it was an early stoppage but at the end of the day he got rocked. Protect yourself at all times, it’s part of the sport. Sh*t happens. Go back to the drawing board, redo and come back in there. Meanwhile, let me get one of these belts.”
