Antonio McKee was focused on one thing after yesterday’s press conference for Liddell vs. Ortiz 3: clearing up “that snitch shit” that Tito Ortiz had accused him of.
Antonio McKee wasn’t even interested in talking about his incredible crop of rookies after Tuesday’s media day for Liddell vs. Oritz 3. The head coach of Team Bodyshop instead immediately focused on accusations leveled by Tito Ortiz that McKee had leaked him info about Chuck Liddell’s training camp. Liddell has been working with Team Bodyshop in preparation for this weekend’s fight between the two MMA legends at The Forum in L.A.
McKee wanted to make one thing clear immediately: he’s no snitch, and Ortiz needed to retract his statements. “I’m still active. I’m in the streets. I’m trying to make a change in the community. I don’t deal with a lot of law abiding citizens, and a lot of them do illegal things,” McKee explained about why the issue is so important to him. “I’m trying to be a positive influence in our community. I still live on the outskirts of that area. So by him saying that about me, I took that really personal, and I don’t like that. Because the people that I’ve worked with, the people that I’m working with, they need to know one thing about me, that they have my loyalty.”
“If someone is referring to me as a snitch or a spy, that can’t run where I’m coming from,” he said. Asked how he’s been able to handle his relationship with both Ortiz and Liddell, McKee pointed out that “I trained Rampage, and Rampage was in the same gym as Tito. I’ve worked out with Tito, Tito’s came to my gym and worked out. It’s all good, that’s the fight game.” He went right back to the snitch issue however, adding “but when you refer to me as a snitch or a spy, I take that real personal.”
“So I went over to Tito and I asked Tito, ‘hey bro you need to clear that up, you can’t be having me out there like that,'” McKee continued. “I’m almost 50 years old bro. I came from a bad place. I’m in a good place now, the last ten years of my life has been amazing! Mentoring, coaching, developing inner city talent. And for that to be said, there’s another way to sell the show without doing that.”
To his credit, Ortiz had already retracted his statement when he spoke to Cageside Press just a few minutes earlier. Still, speaking to the media simply isn’t enough. For McKee, it’s a matter of clearing it up “with the community, with the public. You need to go on your social media, and you need to clear that up. Because you can’t say that about me. I have an image I have to uphold, just like anybody else. You can talk about my momma, you can talk about anything you want, but to say I’m a snitch? I’m from the streets.”
Despite a lack of education and top schools at his disposal, and the very real possibility that he go down a rough path, McKee clawed his way up to where he is today. But that streets background never seems to fully vanish. Snitching, with that in mind, is one of the worst things McKee could be accused of, in his mind, up there with child molester.
With that matter dealt with, however, Antonio McKee had high praise for Chuck Liddell, and their first camp together at Team Bodyshop. “It was another great athlete under the coattail, but out of all the athletes I’ve ever worked with, Chuck was probably the hardest worker out of everybody.”
Will that hard work pay off? We’ll find out this Saturday, November 24. Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 takes place at The Forum in Los Angeles, live on PPV.
