The Million Dollar Submission! @AJMcKee101
stops @PatricioPitbull
to become the Bellator Featherweight World Champion. WOW!A historic moment at @TheForum.
#Bellator263 pic.twitter.com/fg75zEKrta— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA)
August 1, 2021
On perhaps the biggest stage in Bellator MMA history, A.J. McKee
dispatched the man who is arguably the promotion’s greatest fighter
in shockingly quick fashion.
McKee claimed the featherweight crown — and the $1 million check
that accompanies winning the organization’s 145-pound grand prix —
with a first-round submission of Patricio
Freire in the
Bellator 263 headliner at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on
Saturday night. The 26-year-old Team Bodyshop standout rendered Freire unconscious with a standing
guillotine choke at the 1:57 mark of Round 1. The Brazilian
sees a seven-bout winning streak come to an end but remains the
reigning Bellator lightweight champion. McKee, meanwhile (18-0,
18-0 Bellator) vanquished Georgi
Karakhanyan, Derek
Campos, Darrion
Caldwell and finally, Freire, to make his way through the
featherweight bracket.
“Man, all my dreams coming true. It’s amazing,” McKee said. “We’re
not done. This is just the beginning. I’m looking forward to
holding this baby for the rest of my life. It ain’t going
nowhere.”
It was an electric atmosphere before the bout even started, as a
raucous crowd put their vocal might behind McKee, a California
native. After a brief feeling-out period, McKee closed the distance
and stunned Freire (32-5, 20-5 Bellator) with a head kick to the
jaw. From there, McKee swarmed with punches and dropped “Pitbull”
near the fence, which prompted a premature celebration from the man
known as “Mercenary.” It didn’t take long for McKee to go back on
the attack, as he locked in the fight-ending maneuver and squeezed
until Freire’s arm went limp.
“I thought he was done and I looked at him and I was like, ‘Man,
well let’s get on him again,’” McKee said. “I felt him go limp a
little bit. I knew he was already rocked a little bit. I felt him
buckle a little bit and I was like, ‘All right, that’s it.’”
In the co-main event, Mads
Burnell relied on takedowns and top control to hold off
two-time title challenger Emmanuel
Sanchez in a fast-paced featherweight affar. All three judges
submitted scorecards in favor of the former Cage Warriors title
holder: 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27. Burnell (16-3, 3-0 Bellator) has
won seven bouts in a row, while Sanchez (20-6, 13-5) has lost
consecutive fights for the first time in his professional
tenure.
“That dude is the toughest son of a gun I’ve ever shared the cage
with,” Burnell said.
Sanchez set a blistering pace on the feet, landing multi-punch
combinations to the head while mixing in slashing elbows and shots
to the body. While Burnell connected with solid offense of his own
in exchanges, he couldn’t match his opponent’s volume in that
regard.
However, Sanchez gradually had more and more difficulty remaining
upright as the bout progressed, and Burnell was able to sway the
scorecards in his favor by grounding his adversary in each round.
The final frame was the Dane’s most emphatic, as he spent the
majority of the period in top position. All told, Burnell was
credited with seven takedowns and more than five minutes of control
time in the bout.
Elsewhere, American Kickboxing Academy product Usman
Nurmagomedov made short work of Luis Muro in a
lightweight scrap to keep his undefeated record intact. A knee to the body from Nurmagomedov sent Muro
crumbling to the canvas, and the 23-year-old prospect finished
from there with a flurry of punches and hammerfists to the head at
the 3:30 mark of Round 1.
The cousin of former UFC champ Khabib
Nurmagomedov was in control throughout, as he landed takedowns,
transitioned to dominant positions and threatened with submissions.
When Muro was able to spin out of a rear-naked choke attempt and
move into top position, Nurmagomedov (13-0, 2-0 Bellator) quickly
rose to his feet, turned his foe into the fence in the clinch and
began landing periodic knees before the decisive blow connected.
Muro (12-7, 3-1 Bellator) sees a three-bout Bellator winning streak
snapped in defeat.
Earlier, cageside judges favored Islam
Mamedov’s top position over Brent
Primus’ active guard work, as the former Professional Fighters
League talent captured a contentious split decision in a featured
lightweight clash. Bryan Miner and Marcel Varela submitted 29-28
scorecards for Mamedov (20-1-1, 1-0 Bellator), while Sal D’Amato
saw it 29-28 for the former Bellator 155-pound king.
Mamedov was able to secure takedowns or top position in each frame,
but the 31-year-old Dagestani offered little in the way of
meaningful offense once he got the action to the canvas. Instead,
it was Primus who attempted myriad submissions from his back —
including omoplatas, kimuras and armbars — while limiting his
opponent’s ability to create space. To his credit, Mamedov
displayed solid submission defense throughout the fight, repeatedly
extracting himself from precarious positions.
Mamedov did his best work in Round 3, when he tripped Primus (10-2,
8-2 Bellator) to the canvas with a low kick early and spent more
than four minutes working from top position. While Mamedov again
landed minimal ground-and-pound, Primus’ submission attacks slowed
considerably in the final five minutes, likely sealing his
fate.
In the evening’s opening main card bout, Bellator’s all-time
submission leader Goiti
Yamauchi showcased a different aspect to his game, as he scored
a technical knockout over previously unbeaten Team Alpha Male
representative Christopher
Gonzalez at lightweight. Yamauchi (26-5, 12-4 Bellator) brought
the contest to a close 3:53 into Round 1, earning his first KO/TKO
triumph since he stopped Saul
Almeida with punches in his second Bellator appearance in
November 2013.
Gonzalez (6-1, 6-1 Bellator), a former National Junior College
Athletic Assocation All-American in wrestling, elected to stand and
trade with Yamauchi for the duration of the bout and paid dearly
for that decision. The 28-year-old Japanese standout gradually
increased the intensity of his strikes as the fight progressed,
landing kicks to the body, lead uppercuts and crisp straight right
hands. It was a right hand from Yamauchi that floored
Gonzalez near the fence, and he sealed his victory with
approximately nine standing-to-ground punches on his
defenseless foe before referee Mike Beltran intervened.
In preliminary action: Former Invicta FC flyweight queen Vanessa
Porto (23-9, 1-1 Bellator) edged Ilara
Joanne (9-6, 1-2 Bellator) via split decision (29-28, 28-29,
29-28) at 125 pounds; ex-Eagle Fighting Championship title holder
Gadzhi
Rabadanov (16-4-1, 1-0 Bellator) dropped Daniel
Carey (7-5, 3-4 Bellator) with a left hook, then finished off his victory with follow-up ground
strikes 3:57 into Round 1 of a 150-pound catchweight encounter;
20-year-old Khasan
Magomedsharipov (6-0, 1-0 Bellator), the younger brother of UFC
contender Zabit
Magomedsharipov, battered Jonathan
Quiroz (3-5, 0-2 Bellator) with punches from back mount for a TKO win at
the 4:21 mark of Round 2 in a featherweight clash; Joshua
Jones (11-5, 4-2) put Johnny
Cisneros (13-8, 3-6 Bellator) away wth a barrage of punches and hammerfists from top
position 4:15 into the second round of a 180-pound catchweight
affair; former World Series of Fighting champ Georgi Karakhanan
(31-11-1, 1 NC, 9-9 Bellator) used an arm-triangle choke to submit Dublin
native Kiefer
Crosbie (8-3, 4-3 Bellator) 4:25 into Round 1 at lightweight
and SBG Ireland export Brian Moore
(14-7, 6-3 Bellator) earned a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26,
30-26) over Team Quest member Jordan
Winski (11-3, 0-1 Bellator) at bantamweight.