It appears that UFC lightweight fighter Antonio “Mandingo” McKee (25-4-2) has been released by the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The 40-year old McKee finally made his UFC debut after a 15 fight undefeated streak with various promotions and wound up losing a split decision to Jacob Volkmann at last weekends UFC 125 event.
The unconfirmed news was first reported by FiveOuncesOfPain.com, but one important note to support this bit of news is McKee’s profile no longer appears under the UFC lightweight roster at UFC.com.
McKee has received a lot of criticism in the past for his “boring” performances in the ring, his performance against Volkmann may have been a contributing factor as well as the the merging of the WEC and UFC lightweight divisions as Zuffa looks to cut it’s bloated roster.
Before he was signed with the UFC, the former Maximum Fighting Championship lightweight title holder had vowed to finish his opponents after he was criticized for not finishing fights. McKee would finish his next two opponents in 2010 and was signed shortly after his last win in September by the UFC.
It’s unsure of what the future holds for the 40-year old McKee, he could certainly return to the MFC or another promotion and find success there, but he’s has also talked about retirement. Whatever he chooses to do it’s almost certain that another run at returning to the UFC seems almost impossible.