A.J. McKee might be one of the faces of Bellator MMA, but should that promotion and the PFL ever decide to cross-promote, he’s not about to make it all about himself.
McKee (18-1) was on hand at Friday’s PFL 3 card in Arlington, Texas, cornering some teammates, and addressed the cross-promotion subject with the media.
Having just lost his featherweight title back to Patricio Pitbull, the goal is still to become “champ-champ,” McKee stated. “The first step is retrieving that world title back, then game plan to get the second one.”
Asked if he felt he was the best featherweight in the world, McKee replied by saying that “Hands down, I feel I’m the best, well I know I’m the best 145’er in the world. Doesn’t matter the organization. Let’s fight about it, if somebody feels otherwise. I’ve got some bread to put up. PFL might be open to cross-promotion, Bellator is open to it. I don’t think Uncle Dana [White, UFC President] is, but maybe. We’ll get something going. It could be a possibility. We’ve got Cyborg, myself. We could get some big stuff poppin’ here in the near future.”
That, of course, brought about talk of a Cris Cyborg vs. Kayla Harrison super-fight. Bellator made a play for Harrison during her recent free agent period, but the PFL exercised their matching rights, retaining the services of their biggest star. The only way the pair will fight now is if the two promotions choose to co-promote, and McKee said he’s down to appear on the undercard.
“Just with the accolades — I pay attention a lot to what people have done. I wouldn’t mind fighting under Kayla and Cyborg. That’s just a historic fight,” said McKee. “The accolades Cyborg has under her belt, man— every organization she’s touched, to be a victorious champ in every organization, that’s unheard of. I’d be honored to fight under that card.”
“Obviously I’m going to try to come steal the show, that’s a different story!” McKee added. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind it. Line-up don’t really matter.”
Watch the full PFL 3 media scrum with A.J. McKee above.
