Roberto de Souza hopes a win over A.J. McKee puts Rizin’s name on the map globally.
Rizin FF’s lightweight champ de Souza (14-1) faces former Bellator featherweight champ McKee (19-1) in Saturday’s Rizin 40 headliner at Saitama Super Arena just outside Tokyo. The main card will air in the U.S. on Showtime via tape delay and the fights will take place in Rizin’s ring under the promotion’s ruleset.
De Souza’s lone career loss came to Johnny Case by TKO in 2019 – a result he avenged by first-round submission in his recent outing in April. De Souza acknowledges that McKee is well-versed everywhere, but wants to show Rizin’s level in this big cross-promotion bout.
“I think he’s a dangerous fighter, but that’s about it,” de Souza said through an interpreter during the Rizin 40 pre-fight press conference. “But he’s from Bellator and he’s been chosen by Bellator so I have to be careful in that sense.”
He continued, “I know it’s gonna be a difficult fight and maybe one of the most difficult fights of my career. But I’ve trained hard for this match and I hope I get a win and raise the name of Rizin around the world.”
This will mark McKee’s second fight at lightweight. After losing his featherweight title in his rematch against Patricio Freire, McKee made his lightweight debut against Spike Carlyle. He won the bout by unanimous decision.
“Of course he’s fought in lightweight only once so I can’t really comment on the difference (between featherweight and lightweight),” de Souza said. “But watching his featherweight matches, he was physically strong, he had mostly finishes in his matches. But his previous match at lightweight, he wasn’t able to finish that, so I really can’t tell.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Rizin FF 40: Rizin vs. Bellator.
Roberto de Souza expects ‘difficult fight’ with A.J. McKee, but hopes win helps Rizin’s brand value