Antonio McKee: Rampage physically threw his sparring partner out of the cage following accidental cut

Bellator is coming off one of their highest viewed shows from last weekend, a perfect way to kick off 2017. While Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen delivered roughly two minutes of action, and the rest of the card provided some visually brilliant moments (Ward/Daley is a must watch), there was other news to be made from the night’s festivities. The rematch fight fans have been waiting for, King Mo vs. Rampage II, has finally been booked, and the smack talk and memes are fully underway (see Lawal’s Instagram here).

Something that’s been flying just under the radar, though, is a quick interview Champions.co conducted with rising prospect A.J. McKee and his father, Anthony “Mandingo” McKee, about their many years training alongside Jackson. The father-son team had a pair of incredible stories about some of Rampage’s livelier gym antics, which includes a story about a sparring partner that was thrown out of a cage and a powerbomb of Emanuel Newton that left him without a tooth.

"Rampage is Rampage. I remember one time we were sparring, and [his partner] throws a spinning backfist that cuts Rampage's eye open. It took four coaches to control Rampage.

Rampage literally threw this kid out of the Octagon, from the floor over the top. The kid took off and never came back to camp. Rampage calmed down and started howling like a wolf and all that weird stuff. That’s probably the craziest thing I can remember. It was me, [Cheick] Kongo, his coach and another coach holding him, and he threw us off like we were flies."

The rest of the interview, including the powerbomb of Newton, is in the two-minute video below. Lawal and Jackson are set to meet up in the Bellator cage once again in March for Bellator 175.