AJ McKee has always wanted to try his hand at a professional boxing match.
In fact, the former Bellator featherweight world champion routinely puts works in with Freddie Roach at the renowned trainer’s Wild Card Boxing gym in Los Angeles, California.
“I enjoy going to boxing gyms, getting to box with these boxers and kind of play their game because we all know they’re not going to get in the cage and play our game,” McKee recently told DAZN during an exclusive Zoom session. “I think now boxers are starting to have more respect for mixed martial artists.”
Francis Ngannou crossing over to boxing and dropping Tyson Fury, before suffering a controversial split-decision loss to the “Gypsy King” in October, has something to do with that.
And if McKee had to pick a winner of the March 8 fight between Anthony Joshua and Ngannou, he’d go with the latter.
“I’m going to have to go with Francis in that fight just because the sheer dog and determination,” McKee said.
“When Fury fought Francis, I already knew that power was going to be a big thing that Fury underestimates. So with him underestimating that power, he got caught with that left hook. When he got caught with that thing, he didn’t know what hit him,” McKee continued.
“Not saying anything about Anthony Joshua, but I don’t think Anthony Joshua has that dog in him like that. We’ve seen fights where he gets hit and he kind of withers away a little bit,” McKee tacked on. “Mixed martial arts is a sport where you’re going to give some and take some, so Francis is beast mode.
“He got touched up quite a few times against Fury and he stayed in his face, which was surprising to a lot of people, and he didn’t overpunch himself, which was also surprising to a lot of people.”
AJ-Ngannou aside, McKee still holds onto the hope that he'll be able to test his sweet science skills against boxing’s elite someday.
“I’ve always wanted to box,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to test my skills with the elites. That’s why I’ve always said I’m the Floyd Mayweather of MMA. I would love to move around with Floyd.”
McKee will fight Clay Collard in a lightweight showcase bout as part of the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions event Saturday, live on DAZN and DAZN PPV.