This should be fun. Won his first Bellator championship a few minutes ago and they’re already in a contract dispute.
I thought you knew this is how it goes now.
Did he say Bellator is paying him $1MM? And he thinks UFC is going to be paying $5MM for McKee?
I’m not sure if he was using the actual numbers he’s making, and expects to make, or if he was just using it as an example, saying he thinks the UFC will pay 5x what Bellator will.
I think he’s right about one thing though, if Aj is truly going to be a star, one that will sell tons of PPVs etc, Bellator won’t be able to afford him long term. Different business model entirely. The UFC has several stars making multiple millions. If Aj is that good, and people are willing to pay him to fight, he’ll make tons more with the UFC.
I don’t know much about AJ to be honest. Which could be good or bad.
To make those dollars you need to starch everybody in the right weight classes or be a Conor mouth that gets people going or both.
Unless I’m missing someone, Khabib is the the more recent example of just doing his business and getting rich but he had a massive market AJ doesn’t.
Hope he does as good as he can, but you are right saying if he continues to grow stardom that Bellator will have some tough calls to make.
Does he think the ufc is going to pay his son fair value?
I hope he gets a UFC contract not much else for him in Bellator, hope he gets paid and fights some top guys
Remember when Antonio McKee was known as the most boring fighter in the entire sport
and then finished like 1 guy finally and got a UFC fight
and had the most boring, miserable, god awful fight ever and lost a decision and immediately got cut
and then got knocked out by Aoki lmao what a career
Bellator groomed AJ by giving him cans t beginning… they need to show Coker some love
What is smartest move by ufc here though? McKee has all the talent to go very far and be the champ in ufc. Should Dana sign him and put him against the hardest opponents first in hopes they beat him or should he promote the hell out of him knowing there’s a good chance he’ll be champion?
As for if McKee will be a big star in the ufc I’m not sure. Holloway is great but is he a draw ? Voljanowski is not even close to being a star
Antonio got knocked out by Aoki?!
I think matching him up with someone like Dan Ige someone in the top 10 that is normally entertaining, but is also a fight where McKee would be a solid favorite is the move.
I lol’d at the “one punch submission power” comment.
That’s what I gathered lol