A.J. McKee made a spectacular entrance for his Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN main event matchup with Roberto de Souza, and he made sure that he went all out on his outfit.
McKee defeated “Satoshi” to cap off a 5-0 sweep for Team Bellator on Saturday at the historic Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. “Mercenary” made his way to the ring in a full-on samurai suit and delivered a samurai-like performance in going right into the fire with the submission specialist to earn the victory.
The victory will go down as a “top-three” win for McKee in his career, and the walkout just added to it.
A.J. McKee wields a sword on his way to the ring #BellatorvsRizin pic.twitter.com/qbASLnlDcR
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) December 31, 2022
AJ McKee enters the legendary Saitama Super Arena in Samurai armour
Full Replay at 8pm ET/PT on @SHOSports#RIZINvsBellator#BellatorvsRIZIN#RIZIN40 pic.twitter.com/yC1MCTTknk
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) December 31, 2022
“I did a lot of research for it, [it cost] a nice little hefty penny,” McKee told MMA Fighting. It was quite expensive, but it wasn’t a major concern. I spent $100,000 on it.”
McKee ended 2022 with a move up to the lightweight division, earning a pair of victories, including a wild decision win over Spike Carlyle at Bellator 286 in October.
Fighting at Saitama Super Arena was an opportunity McKee had never seen before and he wanted the best of it all, starting with his unforgettable entrance.
” I found this place online by looking at various samurai sites, and looking at Katana [swords], and other stuff. They were like, Dude, you cannot get a Katana’,” McKee explained to MMA Fighting. “To obtain a Katana you must register it with the police,” I replied. The police said they wouldn’t give you one but that an armor suit .’
could be found.
“I wanted armor, too. As I prepare for battle, I thought it would be something that I could connect with their culture and my own culture. Let’s not forget that I was once in Japan. The other suits I was looking at, they didn’t give me that preparing for battle feel like this real deal, alligator coated samurai suit.”
Spending six-figures on a walkout might be crazy to some people. But for McKee, seeing the reaction to it, and then finding out the collectible money with his face that fell from the rafters is being resold, made the juice worth the squeeze in the end.
” Definitely [it was worth it],” McKee. “The dude told me that the only other person that has bought a suit like this was, ‘It was a King, and I can’t tell you who it was.’ I didn’t want to know, I was like, ‘You can tell everyone I bought this one, I’m not worried about it.’
” But it was good, man. That’s going to be something I put in my man cave, it will just kind of kick it there with the trophy in front of it with a nice little wall behind it.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/1/3/23537575/a-j-mckee-says-he-spent-100k-on-bellator-mma-vs-rizin-samurai-walkout-gear?rand=96749
