Bellator’s former featherweight champion and homegrown star, AJ McKee, capped off a massive night for the promotion at Bellator vs Rizin on New Year’s Eve. McKee defeated Roberto de Souza on the night, giving team Bellator a 5-0 clean sweep across the main event, and made a walkout to remember. McKee entered the historic Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, clad in samurai armor, complete with sword and a $100K price tag.
“I did a lot of research for it, [it cost] a nice little hefty penny. It was a hefty penny I spent on it, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I spent $100,000 on it.”
AJ McKee Spent $100K on Samurai Costume for Bellator vs Rizin
McKee wanted something memorable to mark his appearance in Japan, and figured a traditional samurai sword or katana would be a great start.
“I found this spot online, just looking at different samurai places, looking at Katana [swords] and stuff and they were like, ‘Dude, you can’t get a Katana.’
To get a Katana, you have to register it to the damn police,’ and I was like, that’s fine by me. They were like, ‘You’re not getting one, but you could find an armor suit.’
I wanted armor, too. I’m preparing for battle, so I figured it was something I could relate to their culture with, and with my culture at the same time. I’m in Japan one time, so let’s just go full send on it. The other suits I was looking at, they didn’t give me that preparing for battle feel like this real deal, alligator coated samurai suit.”
McKee’s chance to fight at the legendary arena was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he wasn’t going to squander that with just another walkout. He later found out that the suit has a twin, owned by an anonymous king somewhere in the world.
“Definitely [it was worth it]. The dude told me that the only other person that has bought a suit like this was, ‘It was a King, and I can’t tell you who it was.’ I didn’t want to know, I was like, ‘You can tell everyone I bought this one, I’m not worried about it.’
But it was dope, man. That’s going to be something I put in my man cave, it will just kind of kick it there with the trophy in front of it with a nice little wall behind it.”
Do you think AJ McKee’s six-figure samurai suit was worth it? Let us know in the comments.
