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UFC 268 fighter Michael Chandler knows about making the jump from being a superstar in Bellator to a newcomer in the UFC. And he has some advice for Bellator’s latest face in featherweight champion AJ McKee. “The UFC does it bigger, does it better.”
The former Bellator lightweight champion and promotion great spoke with the media on Wednesday in the lead-up to his main card featured matchup with former interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje (22-3). During the questioning, he was asked about McKee, a fast-rising star in the sport who has openly flirted with UFC President Dana White and has not hidden his interest in possibly moving to the UFC one day.
Chandler (22-6) has walked that path that “Mercenary” will have to one day seriously contemplate. Although he sees the 26-year-old as a young star that hasn’t even hit his prime if he were to take his talents to the Octagon, he needs to know that the UFC is a far bigger stage, and spotlight, than being the biggest fish in the Bellator pond.
Michael Chandler has some advice for AJ McKee if he eventually makes the move to the UFC
“AJ’s still very young right? He’s only 25 or 27? Everybody calls it a young man’s game, but I don’t think you’re a true man and in your prime until you’re 30. He’s still younger than that. Longevity in this sport is so important. I don’t know when his contract is up. Obviously, he just won that tournament, so kudos to him and hats off to him. Things are different over here. Very, very different,” said Chandler.
“I’ve seen it over the last 13 months the way things have exploded [in his notoriety] compared to 13 years before that out of the UFC. That’s not a knock on any other organization but the UFC does it bigger [and] does it better,” he added. “They give you an opportunity, and I wish more fighters inside the organization and outside the organization, media, everybody saw that like we see it when we’re in the trenches.”
McKee is unbeaten after 18 pro fights and earned his biggest victory yet in July when he scored a first-round submission on Bellator legend Patricio “Pitbull” Freire in the finals of the featherweight Grand Prix.
“Iron” will go toe-to-toe with Gaethje on the main card of UFC 268 on Nov. 6, inside New York’s Madison Square Garden. The matchup has major ramifications in the division, and the winner of this scrap between top-five ranked 155-pounders could lead to a showdown with the victor of the UFC 269 lightweight championship bout between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier.
UFC 268 kicks off at 6 pm ET on Saturday night with preliminary action on ESPN and streaming service ESPN+. That is then followed by the main card pay-per-view at 10 pm ET, which will air exclusively on ESPN+.
