Bellator MMA has a reputation, in part deserved, for signing UFC fighters past their prime. However, CEO Scott Coker and matchmaker Rich Chou have an extraordinary record for developing talent. With the acquisition of Coker’s Strikeforce, the UFC got Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey, Alistair Overeem, Jacare Souza, and Cris Cyborg, among many other stars. Coker and Chou moved on to Bellator MMA, and have signed top former UFC talent. The Bellator light heavyweight division alone includes Anthony Johnson, Yoel Romero, Ryan Bader, Corey Anderson, and Phil Davis. And none of them is champ – that’s Vadim Nemkov, who beat two of the former UFC fighters listed above.

And Bellator is developing talent in-house. Coker was cageside when A.J. McKee won what would turn out to be his final amateur fight. McKee, then 19, pointed at Coker in “sign me” gesture. Coker, who was with A.J.’s father, retired pro Antonio McKee, did sign the teenager. The younger McKee, now 25 years old and 17-0 as a pro, has been with Bellator for his entire career.

A.J. made the finals of Bellator’s featherweight grand prix, knocking out Georgi Karakhanyan in eight seconds, arm barring Derek Campos in Round 3, and neck cranking former bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell in 71 seconds. If he beats the winner of champion Patricio Freire vs. Emmanuel Sanchez in February, A.J. wins a $1,000,000 prize. During a recent interview with Mike Bohn for MMA Junkie, Coker talked about it.

We didn’t want to throw him into the deep end too soon because we really felt like he was something special, said Coker. He had to win these fights, though. It’s not like he was out there fighting taxi cab fighters. He was fighting real fights, guys that potentially could beat him equal to his talent level. But he just kept getting better and better.

I think he is already a big star for Bellator, and he’s on his way to becoming a megastar for Bellator and the sport. And, really, it’s gonna be up to us to promote him properly and keep him out there.

Here’s a kid that is extremely intelligent. He’s a good looking kid. He’s built well. He’s marketable. He can talk. He has this swagger about him, and I call it the X-factor. Some people have it, and some people don’t.

He’s gonna definitely have his opportunity to raise his level of how people feel about him being the best in the world when he fights the winner of the Sanchez vs. ‘Pitbull’ fight in the finals of this tournament.