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This is the Bellator 263 live blog for Patricio Pitbull vs. A.J. McKee, the featherweight headliner for Saturday’s fight card at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
The 145-pound title fight is one of the most highly anticipated bouts in recent Bellator history, a meeting between the undefeated phenom A.J. McKee and two-division champion Patricio Freire, who defends the featherweight title he brought into the Bellator featherweight grand prix. The 16-man competition started in September 2019, and Pitbull and McKee each won three bouts to punch their tickets to the finals; Freire outpointed then-bantamweight champ Juan Archuleta before stopping Pedro Carvalho and Emmanuel Sanchez, while McKee earned stoppages of Georgi Karakhanyan, Derek Campos and Darrion Caldwell.
Pitbull is the No. 3 ranked featherweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, while McKee is No. 6; Pitbull is also the No. 9 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Check out the Bellator 263 live blog.