SAN JOSE, Calif. – In recent years, if a pair of champions each have a win over the other, it’s been a reasonably sure thing to expect a trilogy.
But that might not be so cut and dried for Patricio Freire (33-5 MMA, 21-5 BMMA) and A.J. McKee (18-1 MMA, 18-1 BMMA), Bellator president Scott Coker said after Bellator 277 on Friday in San Jose, Calif.
McKee submitted Freire quickly in July 2021 to end Freire’s long reign over Bellator’s featherweight division. In the aftermath, Freire relinquished his lightweight title to focus purely on featherweight and a chance to recapture the belt.
That’s what he did Friday with a unanimous decision over McKee. The loss was the first of McKee’s pro career and came in a close fight. Freire had a pair of 48-47 scores from the judges and a 49-46. And while Coker acknowledged the fight was close, he’s not sure the promotion will set up a trilogy rematch.
“Listen, the judges saw it the way they saw it and he’s the new champ,” Coker said. “As far as I’m concerned, he deserves it. I think it was a very close fight. It was a technical fight. And it’s not my job to judge – it’s for the judges and the state athletic commission to work that out, and that’s what happened. That’s what you saw. You saw the judges call the fight the way they did. I did think it was very close. I was sitting around some of my friends and said, ‘What did you think?’ Half of them said A.J., half of them said ‘Pitbull.’ It was very close.”
One of the reasons a trilogy fight won’t be easy to lock down is McKee’s insistence he’s going up to lightweight. He said many times in a post-fight news conference that he’s done fighting at featherweight and alluded to the weight cut being too taxing on him.
If he moves up to lightweight, he’ll have his eyes on another “Pitbull” Freire: Patricio’s brother Patricky won the belt Patricio vacated.
So if McKee is done at featherweight, it’s pretty hard to reclaim the 145-pound belt if he’s fighting at 155 pounds. But Coker might not have been sold on McKee getting a quick rematch, anyway thanks to Adam Borics waiting in the wings.
“I’m going to go back and watch this fight and talk to my team,” Coker said. “But as much as we’d love to see a rematch, let’s see how that goes. I can’t really answer that question. If all parties want to do that, we might do it. But it’s not guaranteed. Adam Borics looked great against Mads Burnell (at Bellator 276 in March) – he had a great performance. He had an amazing fight, and we’ll see.”
Check out Coker’s full post-fight interview in the video above.
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