Champ Patricio Freire calls A.J. McKee ‘easy money’ after Bellator 253; McKee fires back

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — If the fight comes to fruition, it will be one of the hottest in Bellator history: Featherweight champion Patricio Freire vs. undefeated rising star A.J. McKee in the finals of the Bellator featherweight grand prix finals.

McKee (17-0 MMA, 17-0 BMMA) has already punched his ticket, with a sensational neck crank submission of former bantamweight champ Darrion Caldwell in the tournament semifinal main event of Bellator 253 on Thursday night.

Freire, who also holds the company’s lightweight title, still has to get past Emmanuel Sanchez in a tournament semifinal and title defense on a TBD date. But “Pitbull” wasted little time commenting on McKee’s victory.

Guy that loves to get guillotined after controlling fights leaves his neck exposed after starting to gain control of the fight. Great fight IQ. And the other fool dared to say I chose the easiest bracket. #Bellator253

— Patricio Freire (@PatricioPitbull) November 20, 2020

The toughest tournament fight will be Sanchez. McKee is easy money. #Bellator253

— Patricio Freire (@PatricioPitbull) November 20, 2020

Appraised of Freire’s tweets by MMA Junkie during the post-fight news conference at Mohegan Sun Arena, McKee first made a long farting noise, then left no doubt what he thought about his potential rival’s words.

“It wasn’t a guillotine stupid, it had nothing to do with his neck,” McKee said. “It was a shoulder crank. You’re supposed to be Brazilian, you don’t know (expletive) about jiu-jitsu apparently. I can’t wait to beat his ass, honestly. this (expletive) is long overdue. He takes it personal, but it’s nothing personal, like I said. He had a great career, but the ’45, ’55 title. I want it back to back, period.”

Pitbull still has to do his part to get to this fight, but McKee is already there. He didn’t want to give away too many secrets after his fantastic finish, but he said he’s been working on the neck crank in the gym, and he was OK with Caldwell, a former NCAA champion wrestler, taking him to the mat so McKee could set it up.

“I can’t give up my game, but I got a lot of things that I work on that I don’t get to expose in the cage,” McKee said. “Front headlock, that’s bread and butter for me, that’s just part of my series I suppose. So I just, its something I’ve been doing since I was a kid, wrestling for front headlocks. I said when he want for the takedown I wasn’t even going to try to defend it so once he hit it, alright adjust and let’s figure out where we’re going to move from there.

With that, McKee improved to 17-0 with his 12th career finish. McKee admitted he’s keeping track of these things.

“Its the stats for me, being the best of the best,” McKee said. “Kobe (Bryant) had how many threes? For me it’s the stats. How many finishes, how many are in the first round? I think what that’s 12 finishes, 10 in the first round. For me it’s all stats man, it’s all about the stats, I’m gonna keep finishing, go back and check the interviews I said at the beginning of the tournament I was going 4-for-4 all finishes.”