How many punches do you think you can throw in three minutes?
“Go to work! Come on! Push, push, push!”
With the time variable set at 180 seconds, peppering a heavy bag as fast as you can?
“Rrrrrrrrrapapapapa!”
Then suddenly unleashing an assortment of jarring lefts and rights to the body and head, occasionally mixing in an elbow or two?
“Last 15 seconds! Come on! Dig! Yes, yes, yes!”
Now try that drill three times, 540 seconds in all, with minimal breaks between and Antonio McKee coaching and encouraging and calling out when to throw for speed or power, the chips in your gloves feeding the data into the app on his phone.
“Dog fight! Tuck that chin! Elbows in!,” McKee barked at his son A.J. during a training session last month at Metroflex Gym in Hawaiian Gardens. “Dig, dig, dig, dig! Get in there!”
Less than a month before his lightweight fight with Paul Hughes at PFL: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, A.J. McKee doesn’t say a word during the three tortuous sessions that he and his father simply call Speed and Power.
Yet after connecting for 2,197 punches, at a startling rate of four punches a second, A.J. McKee finally speaks, sweat cascading from his face.
“I hate that (bleeping) drill,” the Long Beach MMA star said.
A.J. McKee, 29, is a man of few negative emotions. He grins and engages in playful trash talk during training. His eyes widen as he relishes his fight Saturday against an ultra-confident Irishman. He speaks reverently of lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov.
But if you want to turn up the heat in his kitchen, get him talking about why he hasn’t fought since February, when he dismantled former PFL lightweight title challenger Clay Collard via a triangle armbar in a little more than a minute.
“They threw a couple names at me and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, sure.’ And they were like, ‘OK, they don’t want to fight,’” McKee (22-1) recalled. “The (bleep) you mean they don’t want to fight? You get paid to fight! Like, this is your job! So for me, I never say no.
“I see it as an opportunity to go in there and showcase my skills, show everyone what ‘The Mercenary’ is all about, and just do my thing, you know, and then just wait for that title shot.”
That’s where Hughes (12-1) comes into the picture.
While few fighters are eager to step into the cage against the former Bellator featherweight champion, the up-and-comer from Derry, unabashedly inspired by countryman Conor McGregor and his journey to UFC superstardom, eagerly answered the call.
Hughes, 27, grew up playing soccer and hurling, but once he discovered MMA at the age of 15, he was hooked. Twelve years later, after a stellar run in Cage Warriors Fighting Championship and with just one Bellator victory under his belt, he’s about to throw down with one of the sport’s elites.
“Look, A.J., he’s one of the best in the world. He’s been up there for a long time. He doesn’t have any holes in his game. I often get asked, like, ‘Where’s his holes?’ He doesn’t have any,” Hughes said in an exclusive interview last week. “That’s why he is one of the best guys. But what I know that I bring to the table … there’s a reason I’ve been saying I believe I’m one of the best fighters on the planet and genuinely better than him everywhere. I really, really do. And next Saturday, I show that.”
McKee respects Hughes’ desire and willingness to accept a daunting challenge that few have, though the swagger is a little much.
The former Long Beach Poly wrestling star compares Hughes to that “snobby little brother” who’s always talking a big game
“I’d say there’s respect, but at the same time, it’s like, this is our job,” McKee said. “So if he’s tough, like I know he is, he seizes an opportunity, you know? Like he keeps saying, he’s hungry, he wants that big fight. So this is his opportunity to have that big fight.
“These are always the fights that kind of worry my father and I the most. Somebody that has everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
As for what McKee has to lose? A long-awaited lightweight championship fight.
Ever since McKee lost his featherweight title in a rematch with Patricio Pitbull in April 2022 – nine months after McKee submitted the 145-pound champion in less than two minutes to win the $1 million Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix at the Kia Forum – he’s fought at 155 pounds.
As he’s grown accustomed to the extra weight, he’s gone 4-0 with his tapout of Collard his first finish after three unanimous decisions. In September, McKee drove to San Diego to get an up-close look at Bellator lightweight champ Usman Nurmagomedov defeating Alexander Shabliy via unanimous decision.
Afterward, a meeting with former UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was cornering his cousin that night, gave McKee hope that his dream might not be too far away.
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“So hopefully after this one, we get a title shot. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna happen, because Khabib walked by me after the Usman fight in San Diego. He’s like, ‘See you in Dubai.’ And I was like, ‘Oh (bleep)! I guess if I did Dubai, he might know a little something.’”
“It’s always nothing but respect and praise with them. You know, I walked by Usman after his fight. I saw him face to face, congratulated him. So there was no ill feeling, you know. And Khabib, every time he sees my father, he walks up to him and speaks to him like an elder and it’s very respectful. And that’s the thing that I really kind of cherish about Khabib outside of the cage. He’s just such a great human inside and outside of the cage.”
PFL: Battle of the Giants
When: Saturday
Where: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
How to watch: prelims (10:30 a.m., ESPN+); main card (1 p.m., PPV via ESPN+; DAZN)