McKee Out, Rich Clementi in as Shinya Aoki's Dream Opponent [Updated]

by Tim Burke on May 17, 2011 10:30 PM EDT in Asian MMA News

In a move that's not exactly unusual for the Japanese MMA scene, it seems that Shinya Aoki has yet another opponent for the Dream.17: Fight For Japan card on May 29th. Antonio McKee was announced by Dream as Aoki's opponent after a lengthy search, but it appears McKee cannot or will not compete. In his place, TUF and UFC veteran Shane Nelson will step up to face one of the top lightweights in the world on less than two weeks notice. But, as usual, the fight is not official yet. MMAJunkie has it:

MMAjunkie.com today learned from sources close to the event that Nelson (13-5 MMA, 0-0 DREAM) has agreed to replace McKee (25-4-2 MMA, 0-0 DREAM) and face Shinya Aoki (27-5 MMA, 11-2 DREAM) at "DREAM.17: Fight for Japan."

DREAM.17 takes place May 29 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, and serves as a fundraiser following earthquakes and a tsunami that recently ravaged the country. HDNet is expected to air the show in North America.

Bout agreements for the contest are expected to be finalized shortly.

The exact reason for McKee's withdrawal is subject to much speculation. McKee himself says he had visa issues, which had been suspected as a potential barrier for the fight in recent days. However, Mike Kogan (a rep for Dream) disputes McKee's statement:

"There's a travel agent in L.A. since this morning ready to get all the paperwork processed and have his visa processed by Thursday," Kogan said. "He would have had plenty of time. So if it's a visa issue, he can get it done. If it's not, then his people need to come up with a better excuse."

Whatever the reason is, it's all but certain he's off the card. Now let's just hope Nelson doesn't have any of the same issues and is able to step in the ring against Aoki for the big charity event.

UPDATE - McKee spoke with Ben Fowlkes and is now being intentionally mysterious with his reasoning:

"You know what? So I can fight Aoki in the near future, I'm not going to say anything about it," McKee told MMA Fighting on Tuesday. "I'll just say, I've heard it was because I just had surgery. I've heard there's something wrong with my visa. I've heard I wasn't getting paid so I wasn't taking it. But it is definitely my responsibility that the fight's not happening, and I'll just leave it at that. Because I want that fight, sooner or later."

UPDATE #2 - Mike Kogan now reports on his twitter that there's a verbal agreement in place for Aoki to face Rich Clementi, not Shane Nelson. Yeesh.

DREAM: Fight for Japan, May 29th
Shinya Aoki vs. ~~Shane Nelson~~ Rich Clementi
Takeshi Inoue vs. Koichiro Matsumoto
Joachim Hansen vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
Caol Uno vs. Akiyo Nishiura
Katsunori Kikuno vs. Daisuke Nakamura

Bantamweight GP Quarterfinals (Bantamweight Semifinals on same night)
Masakazu Imanari vs. Keisuke Fujiwara
Hideo Tokoro vs. Yoshiro Maeda
Kenji Osawa vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Darren Uyenoyama vs. Atsushi Yamamoto

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Should be a good one!

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by Matt Bishop on May 17, 2011 10:32 PM EDT reply actions

McKee himself said that...

He got his visa stuff done in a video posted recently.

Something else is up.

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by Sergio Hernandez on May 17, 2011 10:37 PM EDT reply actions

Well that should be a 25 second submission

I haven’t followed him since the Tibau fight, but I’m hoping Caol Uno retires.

"If I had a dollar for every brain you don't have, I'd have one dollar." - Squidward Tentacles

by SSreporters on May 17, 2011 10:41 PM EDT reply actions

I don't really remember Shane Nelson

But since he has his own name tattooed, thug life style, on his stomach, I will be rooting against him.

by simpsycho on May 17, 2011 10:42 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs

He was on TUF 8. Got drunk with Junie the first night, and Dana said Shane should fight first. He lost to Escudero by triangle and left the show. He went 2-2 in the UFC, defeating George Roop and getting a terrible stoppage win over Aaron Riley at UFC 96 after he knocked Riley down and the ref jumped in right away. He lost the rematch with Riley, then lost to Matt Wiman and got cut.

Probably his biggest skill is that he’s remarkably hard to finish.

Still a Beer Monster.

http://www.instrength.com

by Tim Burke on May 17, 2011 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Japan is a pretty racist place, maybe that’s why McKee decided to pull out.

by Pyrgz Krum on May 17, 2011 10:47 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Mckee is out because he's too busy filming the second season of his amateur reality family show

by elmojo on May 17, 2011 10:52 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Kogan just tweeted it's going to be Clemente now.

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by Neil Manich on May 17, 2011 11:14 PM EDT reply actions

O Japan

Home of catastrofuck match making

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by II SMASH II on May 17, 2011 11:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Either opponent is terrible.

Goddamn it…let’s get a rematch with the crossdresser again with the wonky rules and everything.

"Unless you can’t think of something intelligent to say, don’t reply and make the world as dumb as you are appearing to be." - mabel4life

by lowellthehammer on May 17, 2011 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, just saw that. Rich Clementi? Geez, I should know better than to try and provide updates on JMMA matchmaking.

Still a Beer Monster.

http://www.instrength.com

by Tim Burke on May 17, 2011 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions

You should probably update the picture as well.

I suggest this one:

"Unless you can’t think of something intelligent to say, don’t reply and make the world as dumb as you are appearing to be." - mabel4life

by lowellthehammer on May 18, 2011 12:12 AM EDT up reply actions

"Wha happa'?"

Learn JiuJitsu, it's fun.

by RolloTomasi on May 18, 2011 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions

That’s my exact expression when I see a plate of brownies across the room at a party.

by Pyrgz Krum on May 18, 2011 1:13 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs

McKee wanted to get paid upfront

and DREAM wanted to continue not paying their foreign fighters

by malkav on May 17, 2011 11:19 PM EDT reply actions

If it wasn't related to pay

I’ll eat my non-existant hat.

by Gitaroo_Dude on May 17, 2011 11:25 PM EDT reply actions

That’s what I am thinking, it HAS to be about pay. And knowing dreams reputation who can blame him

by 1N87 on May 17, 2011 11:26 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I don't even think it was their reputation

Putting on my “wild fan speculation” cap, I’m absolutely positive that McKee’s condition to take the fight was to receive his check upfront, and DREAM couldn’t meet it because they have $0. And that was that.

by Gitaroo_Dude on May 18, 2011 12:13 AM EDT up reply actions

Can you blame him?

He probably verbally agreed to the bout, then thought about it for a few days and realized he would be fighting for free. He wouldn’t even necessarily be fighting for free, essentially he would be paying to fight—training, flights, food & lodging, etc. That is a massive expense he would have to incur just to fight and (probably) not get paid.

by OmoPlata on May 18, 2011 8:32 AM EDT up reply actions

In one win streak, Clementi beat Rumble, Guillard, Stout, and Etim. All in the UFC.

He had one throwaway fight outside the UFC in that time, but no losses in between. Aoki is going to murderfuck him, but lets not pretend Clementi sucks or hasn’t shown glimmers of genius.

"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe

by pdl on May 17, 2011 11:42 PM EDT reply actions

3 years ago.

Those glimmers have been few and far between. Let’s also not pretend that Clementi is anything more than a journeyman.

"Unless you can’t think of something intelligent to say, don’t reply and make the world as dumb as you are appearing to be." - mabel4life

by lowellthehammer on May 18, 2011 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

I still think that's much better than anything Chris Lytle has done.

And those glimmers were in a fucking row, besides a non UFC win over Antoine Skinner. And he teabagged Melvin Guillard.

Clementi ain’t a great fighter. That’s not what I’m selling at all. But he’s a guy who has serious wins on his resume and isn’t as talentless as people want to say a “UFC washout” is. I’m still picking Aoki by whatever he wants, but lets not pretend Clementi is a never was.

"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe

by pdl on May 18, 2011 12:32 AM EDT up reply actions

By that logic Joe Stevenson is still a relevant fighter because he beat a coked up Guillard 4 years ago.

I never claimed Lytle was anything more than a journeyman so I don’t get the significance of bringing him up. Basically, here’s the deal – Clementi USED TO BE a lower mid-level guy who could at least hang at the top of the sport, but he can’t even do that much anymore as evidenced by his uninspiring 7-5 record since leaving the UFC, with none of those wins against recognizable names.

"Unless you can’t think of something intelligent to say, don’t reply and make the world as dumb as you are appearing to be." - mabel4life

by lowellthehammer on May 18, 2011 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions