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What were the biggest moments of Bellator 286? Jeff Wagenheim and Marc Raimondi offer up their takeaways from an action-packed events Long Beach.
AJ McKee will be just fine at lightweight, has options
Coming off the first loss of his career and moving up to debut in a new weight class, AJ McKee didn’t do anything Saturday night to make anyone worry about his future. In his hometown of Long Beach, California, McKee beat Spike Carlyle by unanimous decision in a bloody war that McKee mostly dominated. Carlyle came out roaring to start the fight and McKee still ended up dropping him. For the rest of the battle, Carlyle was mainly on the defensive, with McKee hurting him on the feet and trying to pull off a highlight-reel submission on the ground. McKee, the former Bellator featherweight champion, gave an impressive first performance at lightweight.
The question now for McKee is what’s next and what makes the most sense. He has options and they are mostly good ones. A trilogy fight with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire is arguably the biggest fight Bellator can make currently. McKee said he would only go back down to featherweight for a title shot and has earned that right — he finished “Pitbull” in 2021 before dropping a close decision back in April. Freire has talked about going down to bantamweight after cleaning out the division, but that was under the assumption Aaron Pico would be a challenger soon. Pico lost via injury stoppage to Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator 286.
The other possibility for McKee? Entering into the Bellator Lightweight World Grand Prix, which begins in 2023. McKee has already won the featherweight version of the grand prix and the $1 million that came with it. He could try for a second million and the Bellator lightweight title, which will be on the line in the tournament. Oh, by the way, Freire’s brother Patricky is the current 155-pound Bellator champion. If I’m McKee, I tell Bellator to give me one of the “Pitbull” brothers — either Patricio…
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Source : espn
