A.J. McKee was blown away by his first time fighting in Japan, as part of the country’s annual tradition of soaking in a New Year’s Eve of fights at Saitama Super Arena.
“It was phenomenal, man,” the Bellator lightweight told The Post on Tuesday via Zoom. “I can’t wait to go back. The fans are amazing out there, the people, the culture. It’s just an experience of a lifetime.”
McKee’s victory over Roberto Satoshi de Souza capped a perfect 5-0 night in the unique, co-promoted showdown pitting fighters from American promotion Bellator against those from Japanese organization Rizin, with all bouts going the distance.
All three judges sided with McKee (20-1, 13 finishes), who came to the ring in full samurai garb intended to pay homage to Japanese culture, but the battle wasn’t so easily won. De Souza (14-2, 14 finishes) threatened several times with submissions, impressing the former Bellator featherweight champion with “methodically planned out” attacks on the ground. By Tuesday, he still sported faint evidence of a pair of black eyes and a cut above his right eye.
“I’m a primadonna. I don’t like to get hit at all,” McKee said, agreeing in jest that he might be in the wrong sport. “… I should have played baseball.”
That ship has sailed, but the 27-year-old is just entering his athletic prime while getting more accustomed to the lightweight division. The win over de Souza in the Rizin ring was his second consecutive victory at 155 pounds, the first coming in October in an entertaining but largely one-sided victory over Spike Carlyle in the Bellator cage.
This being his second time competing at lightweight, McKee said that his body is getting more used to the weight class.
“This fight, I felt a lot better,” McKee said. “It’s just getting used to it, more time in there, more time with big boys, and just continue to get better. The more I roll with the big boys, the more I’m gonna become more and more used to moving them around. And that’s the key is being able to figure out how to finesse the big boys around a little bit.”
McKee has much on his to-do list at 155 pounds, securing a slot in the upcoming Bellator World Lightweight Grand Prix and chasing down division champion Usman Nurmagomedov chief among them. However, he wasn’t shy about the one lure that would bring him back down to 145 pounds: A rubber match against Patricio Pitbull, who avenged a 2020 submission loss in the final of Bellator’s featherweight grand prix by securing a close decision win over McKee last April.
Pitbull (35-5, 23 finishes) secured a win of his own in Saitama in the co-main event by defeating Rizin featherweight champion Kleber Koike Erbst in a non-title fight for both champs.
And because of the us-versus-them theme of the night, that meant rivals Pitbull and McKee shared the same locker room. They were in such good spirits, the two toasted each other afterward with celebratory swigs from their flute glass-like gold trophies. McKee characterized their interactions that night as “cordial.”
“It’s business. This is how we put food on the table for our families,” McKee said. “He gave me an apology for some stuff that happened prior, and I told him it’s no hard feelings; it’s all business at the end of the day.
“…But sign that contract,” McKee continued, alluding to the potential trilogy fight, “we gotta do what we gotta do.”