"The best night of my career" McKee hails Belfast crowd after Cage Warrios welterweight victory
Rhys McKee was full of praise for the 3,000 strong Belfast crowd in the SSE Arena who created a raucous atmosphere to match the incredible scenes they witnessed in the cage as the Ballymena man took home the welterweight title after a dramatic fight with Justin Burlinson.
McKee and Burlinson produced a spectacle for the ages as Cage Warriors made its long awaited return to Belfast, and the 26 year old was delighted to come away with the win in front of a home crowd.
“To do it here in Belfast and have my team behind me its just unbelievable, I’m just so happy to get the win. I hope people captured the atmosphere on their phones because it was amazing it felt like the Rhys McKee show,” he said after the fight.
McKee, who returned to Cage Warriors in November following two defeats in the UFC, believes that the experience in the UFC helped him develop mentally ahead of his title fight.
“I’ve developed so much since i came out of the UFC, mindset wise as well as physically. A lot of soul searching went on and I did a lot of deep diving internally and I am a much stronger person now I feel like I’m 35 not 26 I’ve just developed so much.”
He was also quick to acclaim his team for their hard work in ensuring he was in tip top shape for Saturday’s grudge match.
“I’m a Ballymena boy but I wrestled with the boys up in FAI (Fight Academy Ireland) gym in Belfast and it was as an extra addition to my team. I have a really good team dynamic with my coaches and the energy is just mental. I’m as proud of my team as I am of myself without them I’m nothing and they’ve really helped me.
When I was a kid my dad took me to Rodney’s Gym in Ballymena and he said ‘this guy is going to look after you’ and here we are twelve years later, it means so much to me and all the team. This belt is just a bit of metal but it signifies the handwork and so to drape it in the gym is going to be really special,” he smiled.
Reflecting on the fight, McKee admits that it was a very even encounter, but was glad to finally get a victory in the SSE Arena, having lost to in his only previous fight in the arena.
“Both me and Justin were in the jaws of victory and defeat, the fight swung both ways. I remember thinking at the end of the first round, this is a five round fight.
I was relatively fresh after the first round and really enjoyed the fight, even when the blood was dripping, what a fight it was!
“I have a tattoo on the back of my forearm which says somewhere between psychotic and iconic and tonight I’m more psychotic but tomorrow I will be more iconic.
To do it in Belfast city is unbelievable. I lost in this arena so its so good to finally win here and this will be the best night of my career wherever I go from here” he concluded.
Speaking after the hugely successful event, Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan heaped praise on both fighters, believing that it was a fight which will live long in the memory of fans of the sport.
“That was Rhys’ moment, and he was made to work hard for it by Justin. Anyone could have taken that fight. People at the end of that fight probably should have been speechless for 4-5 minutes after that fight, because I was.
They went at each other in a way I haven’t seen before even in the UFC. That had me on the edge of my seat. I’ve been in the sport for 15 years and we witnessed out there was something we will not forget, that was a well matched 50-50 war” he said.
When quizzed on McKee’s prospects of returning to the UFC, Boylan was confident that his performance on Saturday will earn him another shot at the bigger promotion.
“There is a lot going on in the UFC at the minute with different calls in the divisions and a lot of the divisions are oversubscribed right now but I would like to think that tonight is enough for Rhys to go back if he wants to.”
Lauren McCann is the Scoop’s Sport Editor and an English and Spanish student at Queen’s University Belfast.