AJ McKee is an undefeated featherweight prospect, as the fighter currently holds a record of 8-0-0 with all of those wins in Bellator MMA.
AJ’s father is UFC veteran Antonio McKee and AJ credits his father for the lack of punishment he has taken in his eight fight MMA career.
“I try to take the least amount of damage possible. Even in my worse fight, I’ve probably only been hit five times,” McKee said after Bellator 178. “My style, the way my dad has groomed and trained me, is to make sure I don’t get hit.”
While AJ has yet to capture gold in his professional MMA career, the fighter’s father was a Maximum Fighting Championships Lightweight Champion.
Outside of the high level training he has received from his father, another lesson that AJ learned from his old man is how to deal with the business side of MMA.
“A lot of these guys are signing their rights away. Twenty-five percent of everything they make goes to their manager,” McKee said. “… He’s not just on me as a father and a coach; he’s also a mentor showing me right from wrong and what to do in life. It’s not even like he’s my dad. He’s my best friend.”
One thing the son has done better than the father is the way they started their pro MMA careers, as AJ has won eight straight and counting to start his career, while Antonio only got four straight wins before suffering his first defeat.
