AJ McKee v Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire 2: Bellator champion on legacy and free agency

"By the time I'm done with the sport, people will realise McKees are mixed martial arts in its entirety."

AJ McKee has just taken off his purple sunglasses and is ready to make his point. The recently turned 27-year-old is every inch his young age. He is chatty and likes to spend money on expensive cars, but is serious about one thing - fighting.

McKee is Bellator's biggest star, their most marketable asset and their youngest champion.

He submitted long-standing belt holder Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire in just under two minutes last July. Put simply, McKee steamrolled the featherweight division and its long-standing champion and won $1m in the process.

Now McKee defends that title for the first time against the man he stripped it from at Bellator 277, but the American feels his career will not be defined by the accolades he wins.

"This is all about lineage for me, a legacy of a lifestyle," McKee tells BBC Sport. "First, second, third generation of McKees."

"I compare myself to Floyd Mayweather, 50-0. If the cheques are right, I'll reach 50-0 in martial arts. If not, I'll release myself and be done with the sport.

"We have generations of this in our gym to come and play in the play pen, the cage. It's not just me. If it's not me, it'll be my brother Mason."

McKee is trained by his father Antonio, who was also a fighter. He has lived his whole live in Long Beach, California. His four-year-old brother Mason is already attempting "armbars and heel hooks".

• Is Volkanovski the best featherweight in the world?

• McKee: I want to be champ-champ

Winning the featherweight title was the culmination of seven years of work for McKee and his father. He has spent his entire pro career with Bellator.

Becoming champion, however, came with its challenges.

"I'm getting older, wiser and expecting more from myself," McKee explains. "They say it's lonely at the top and I lost a lot of friends last year once I won that world title.

"It's crazy how money changes people and it doesn't even have to be their money. Your money can change someone else."

'This is Kobe Bryant stuff'

McKee made his pro debut in 2015 at Bellator 136 after amassing an amateur record of seven wins and one defeat. That one loss to Christian Espinosa in 2013 was a knockout defeat and changed how McKee approached fighting.

"I remember it and I will never live it down," says McKee, who takes huge pride in his undefeated record as a pro.

Welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov (26-0) and flyweight champion Juliana Velasquez (12-0) are also undefeated in Bellator. There are no unbeaten champions in the UFC.

Khabib Nurmagomedov retired undefeated with a 29-0 record as the UFC lightweight champion. Usually, remaining unbeaten is almost impossible in MMA.

"It's what sets me apart from being like any other fighter. Khabib was the only other one to do it," McKee says.

"Within mixed martial arts, you don't see undefeated fighters built up in one organisation. If you look at the actual stats of my run, 18 fights, 13 finishes, 10 in the first round - who's putting up stats like that?

"That's Kobe Bryant stuff. Michael Jordan stuff. No-one is doing stuff like me."

'I am not a fluke'

McKee's rising profile has fans questioning how he would fare against his direct rivals in other promotions and the questions will soon multiply as McKee tries to renegotiate a new deal with Bellator.

McKee would relish an opportunity to take on UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski and dreams of a cross-promotional super-fight, but he concedes he may have to leave Bellator to prove he is the best.

He is in the final three bouts on his current contract and wants to continue earning £1m per fight, which was his prize for winning Bellator's featherweight tournament.

Despite having built his reputation in Bellator and spent his entire career with the promotion, McKee says he is prepared to become a free agent and fight in "any" organisation.

"At 145lbs I am the baddest man walking this planet. When I became a world champion, it's not just champion of Bellator - I am the champion of the whole world," he says.

"I've made $1m and I don't want to see my cheques below that ever again. Why?

"That's like a boxer fighting for millions of dollars and then he wins and takes a pay cut? It doesn't make sense. I know what I owe, but we're doing business so let's keep everything cordial.

"I feel after this next fight the money will be there.

"I just have to go out there, knock Patricio on his ass one more time and show everyone that this is not a fluke."

• Can Ukraine repel Putin's forces? Panorama reports from the frontline in southern Ukraine

• 'You can't just walk away, they'll kill you' - Police investigate a violent drug gang in rural Devon