From 2003 to 2010, Antonio McKee was considered to be the great unsigned lightweight. He owned a 13-0-1 record bringing him to 25-3-2 on his career and was welcomed into the UFC with moderate hype. Then he got Jacob Volkmann’d. After losing to Volkmann, he was one and done in the UFC. He headed back north to Maximum Fighting Championship to defend his MFC lightweight title, and missed weight coming in at 162 pounds. He won, but in a strange turn of events, was subsequently cut. The odyssey of Antonio McKee continues at Dream 18, with the opportunity of rebirth for both the Japanese promotion and McKee possible if McKee does the unthinkable and defeats Shinya Aoki.
We caught up with McKee to discuss his upcoming battle, and he seemed frank and open, wondering what the fans are going to think about what will be a fight based on ring-savvy and tactics. Fancy words for a fight that could possibly be boring? Maybe.
“I think it’s going to be very entertaining. It’s like, am I going to be boring on the ground if I just lay there in hold him and he can’t submit me, or am I going to be boring on the feet if I just punch him in the face and run?” “I’m going to try to end it in the second round”
