is 23-years old and Pico just 21, they are no strangers to the grueling training found inside Team Bodyshop. “To see us finally be there and have his dad as the man in charge, leading the way is pretty cool.”ĭespite the fact that A.J. “We talked about this as kids when we’d have barbecues at the house to watch the fights,” said Pico. Although a win over his original opponent, former champion Pat Curran, would have solidified A.J.’s shot at Patricio Pitbull’s bantamweight title, a win this Friday at Bellator 205 over John "Macapa" Teixeira could bring the same result. Pico is only beginning his journey up the MMA ladder. “We were looking up to (Antonio), watching him fight and watching all the great guys go through The Bodyshop,” said Pico, “and now for us to actually be those guys, training and fighting on TV is pretty cool, especially being kids from the neighborhood.” MORE: Join DAZN and watch Bellator 205 and 206 for free And for a trainer who has decried the lack of black leaders and mentors in mixed martial arts, Antonio McKee has stepped up to the task. and his friends, like fellow Bellator standouts Joey Davis (4-0), Aaron Pico (3-1) and Kevin "Baby Slice" Ferguson (3-1). Now the athletes who sweat and struggle inside that gym every day are A.J. He also helped create Team Bodyshop, an MMA gym that brings in athletes from around the world to train at the highest level. His father, Antonio McKee, went 29-6 as a professional and is a pioneer of the sport. McKee is no stranger to being surrounded by MMA fighters. We are very proud of both Matt and Neil after their performances in Kaged Kombat 25.A.J. Despite all of that, he nearly finished his opponent at the end of the 1st round.and dislocated his opponent's wrist trying to finish the arm-bar at the end of the second. This prevented him from properly training, weight cutting, and preparing mentally for the fight. Neil completely takes ownership of his performance but, truth be told, he had the flu for 8-9 days prior to the fight. Neil faced real adversity for the first time in his MMA journey, and ground through two very animated rounds. He is still ranked #11 in New York, and #21 in the northeast.Īlthough their fights and outcomes were very different, both Matt and Neil fought like warriors. Beyond disappointed, Neil fell to 4-1-0 and missed his first chance at a title. Neil struggled to get to his corner, and could not continue to round 3 from exhaustion. Neil let go with about 5 seconds left in the round and his opponent began to strike when the horn blew ending round 2. The submission was deep and Neil tried desperately to finish, but his opponent refused to tap. Neil struggled with escaping bad positions for a good portion of the round.but caught his opponent with an arm-bar from the guard with about a minute left in the round. In round two it was clear that Neil's energy level was fading and his opponent gained momentum. Toward the end of round 1, Neil got to his opponent's back and stretched him out into a position called the "grape-vine" (considered the worst position possible in fighting.) Neil attempted to finish the fight with strikes to the head and fishing for a rear choke, but the end of the round came too soon. Neil showed moments of brilliance with takedowns and positioning, wining most of the exchanges in the first round. The two warriors then cycled between very strategic and dynamic maneuvers against the fence, on the ground, and back to striking. Neil quickly reset and began to throw some punches of his own. Neil's fight for the Welterweight title started with a BANG! His opponent landed a vicious overhand right punch to the side of Neil's face right away.which clearly stunned him. Matt is also now ranked # 13 among New York amateur MMA fighters, and #37 in the northeast. Matt emerged victorious at 1:15 of the first round and went to 3-0-0 in his MMA career. After playing defense from the bottom for a bit, Matt threw up a triangle-choke, and finished after a valiant attempt to defend from his opponent. After some punches from the top Matt attempted an arm-bar, but lost it and his opponent began to strike as Matt pulled guard. His opponent struggled to take Matt down, but Matt immediately reversed, and got top position. Matt quickly began to dominate the exchanges, landing some solid straight punches. The fight started with the two trading strikes on their feet. Lee is a brawler, and had a record of 1-1-0 going into this contest. In the fifth fight of the night Matt “Machine” Bienia faced Andrew Lee at 155 pounds. Both of their fights were amazing, but unfortunately only one went home with the W. About 90 of those people came out to support Matt and Neil of Team Z. The event took place on March 12th in Saratoga, New York in front of a “standing room only” crowd. Team ZenQuest provided two of the best fights of the night at Kaged Kombat 25.
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