AJ McKee is Bellator’s biggest star, a home-grown champion who recently sealed a $1 million purse when he claimed Bellator’s featherweight championship. McKee’s father, however, is not going to let his son rest on his laurels, and is aggressively negotiating a new contract for AJ with Bellator. The elder McKee knows that he has a superstar on his hands, and superstars can go where they please.
Even to Bellator’s greatest competitor, the UFC. Antonio McKee told The MMA Hour that he wants what’s best for his son. “A.J. should be able to go fight in the UFC for $5 million if Bellator’s only going to give him $1 million.
AJ McKee’s Father Hints at UFC Future: “A.J. should be able to go fight in the UFC for $5 million if Bellator’s only going to give him $1 million”
Why shouldn’t he be able to go get more money to take care of his family and do his job?
Why would you want to work for someone and know you can go across the street, and there’s no harm done, and you can get a better job to have a better life?
That’s what we’re in this for, and at the end of the day, he’s a corporation the way I look at it.” Antonio McKee continued, passionately discussing the grim reality of dirty business, particularly for black fighters.
“It’s out of my hands now. I couldn’t get what I needed across. One, he’s my son. Two, I’m his trainer, so it seems like a conflict of interest, but when did you know for a Black man to go ask a Jewish man to pay his Black son money.
When has that ever worked? When have they ever wrote a check to another Black man for the value of his self? No, I have to let wolves dance with the wolves. I’m a lion. I can’t be in the same place.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to stay out of it, but I believe CAA works for A.J. They work for the McKee group. They’re employed by us to do a job. I’m going to hold them responsible for the job they do, based on what we want to be done.
That’s the right way to do this. That’s why I don’t understand why everyone’s always heckling me and upset. I’m sorry I didn’t go to Harvard and come back with a master’s degree in vocabulary. I understand the game. I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen the contracts. This is a ugly game. It’s ugly and nasty and you know it.
And I love my son more than I love life sometimes, so I want the best for him just like any other father. So why is it a problem that I speak so passionately about the sport doing right by my son?” McKee the elder finished by comparing his son’s potential in MMA to Conor McGregor.
“The way I look at it is, either you make this kid happy, or you let him fight out his three deals and you let him go.
UFC picks him up. Now, that’s another monster that we’ve got to deal with. But I know what he’s capable of. Here’s a real Conor McGregor, it’s just he’s got to figure out what lane he wants to be labeled as a fighter.”
Regardless of where this negotiation goes, McKee’s future is one of the brightest in the sport. Do you see him fighting in the UFC in future? Let us know in the comments.
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