Sidney Outlaw might’ve had the control time in his favor, but A.J. McKee did all the damage at Bellator 301.
Despite spending much of their lightweight fight on his back, McKee still came away with a clean-sweep unanimous decision win over Outlaw on Friday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. All three judges scored it 30-27 for McKee, underscoring the idea that control time alone isn’t enough to win a fight.
The tone was set in Round 1 as Outlaw (17-6 MMA, 5-3 BMMA) caught a McKee body kick and took him down within the first 15 seconds. For the remainder of the round, Outlaw mostly just held down McKee (21-1 MMA, 21-1 BMMA), who was active with punches and escape attempts from the bottom.
In Round 2, McKee defended Outlaw’s first takedown attempt, but Outlaw caught another kick moments later and used it to take down McKee. Immediately this time, McKee threw elbows to the side of Outlaw’s head and cut him over his right eye. Again, Outlaw appeared content to just lay on McKee, who eventually swept his way into a mount. At that point, McKee landed lots of punches until Outlaw managed to reverse the position and lay on McKee for the second half of the round. But the damage was done as Outlaw was leaking blood from his eye.
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Before Round 3, the doctor closely examined Outlaw’s cut and allowed the fight to continue. McKee opened up with a level change and got a takedown in the first 20 seconds and hit Outlaw with a steady barrage of left hands. Outlaw did manage to reverse position to close out the backend of the final round, but just like before, he simply didn’t throw enough from his top position.
Unofficially, Outlaw had 11 minutes of ground control to 2 minutes for McKee. But McKee had an overwhelming advantage in strikes, 71-28, which included 17-0 on elbows landed.
McKee, a former Bellator featherweight champion, is now 3-0 as a lightweight. This was his first fight after an 11-month layoff. Outlaw has no alternated wins and losses in past three bouts.
Up-to-the-minute Bellator 301 results include:
- A.J. McKee def. Sidney Outlaw via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Alexander Shabliy def. Patricky Freire via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) – advances to lightweight grand prix final
- Archie Colgan def. Pieter Buist via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Denise Kielholtz def. Sumiko Inaba via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Timur Khizriev def. Justin Gonzales via unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Keri Melendez def. Sabriye Sengul via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 2:06
- Matheus Mattos def. Richard Palencia via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:20
- Ramazan Kuramagomedov def. Randall Wallace via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:49
- Islam Mamedov def. Killys Mota via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Cody Law def. Jefferson Pontes via unanimous decision (30-27,30-27, 30-27)
- Tim Wilde def. Mike Hamel via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 2:47
- Yves Landu def. Isao Kobayashi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
