Depending on which side you talk to, be it the Maximum Fighting Championship who says Antonio “Mandingo” McKee (25-4-2) “mutually vacated” the lightweight title, or McKee himself, who says he did no such thing, you will obviously get two different stories concerning the status of the belt.
McKee took a fight outside the MFC after successfully defending the title last September, to fight with the UFC last January. “Mandingo” would lose a close split decision to Jacob Volkmann at UFC 125, and was subsequently released after just one appearance with the top promotion. McKee had expected to come back to the MFC, but found out on Facebook that the Canadian promotion was pitting Hermes Franca vs. Drew Fickett for his title.
Speaking on the “Savage Dog Show” with Sherdog.com recently, McKee talked about learning of losing the title and his conversation with MFC President Mark Pavelich.
“It was kind of a shock to me. I had to go get some surgery on my knee and I believe that promoted [MFC President Mark Pavelich] into thinking that I don’t want to fight. I’m like wow, I don’t know if he’s ever looked at my history, but I’ve never pulled out of a fight or walked away from a fight.”
“He said, ‘Right now I’m going in a different direction. I don’t have anybody that really wants to fight you or I want you to fight them right now because it’s over, man. You’re done.’ I’m like, ‘How are you going to tell me I’m done fighting?’”
“Like I told Mark Pavelich, you may take the title away and you may have those guys fight for the title, but there’s no f–king way I’ll give you back the belt,” he said. “Because I’m the champion. You want to be the best in the MFC at 155? Then you have to beat Antonio McKee. By no means did I put the title up for grabs, did I relinquish the belt. Absolutely not.”
With today’s news that Franca was released by the MFC promotion following charges of sexual abuse in Oregon, it’s likely a safe bet that the MFC has called McKee to talk about him fighting Fickett for the title on June 10 at the upcoming MFC 30 event.
“Mandingo” was recently prepared to go to Japan to fight Shinya Aoki at the DREAM: Fight for Japan event, till that bout fell through, meaning McKee is probably in fight shape already and would have just over three weeks to prepare for Fickett.