![\"AJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AJMcKee.jpeg\" "\\"AJMcKee\\"\/")
AJ McKee, PFL San Diego official weigh-in Credit: PFL<\/p>\nAJ McKee, PFL San Diego official weigh-in Credit: PFL<\/p>\n
AJ McKee closed out Saturday\u2019s PFL San Diego with a vintage \u201cMercenary\u201d performance.<\/p>\n
McKee (25-2), once a Bellator featherweight champ, faced off against the previously undefeated Salamat Isbulaev, and battled through three hard-fought rounds to come away with a unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n
It was far from easy. A competitive scrap saw the pair both have their moments on the feet, while McKee appeared to have the advantage in several thrilling grappling exchanges. The American was sporting a cut over one eyebrow in the end, though Isbulaev was cut as well. Luckily, neither wound had any direct impact on the action, with the bout going the full 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Triplicate 30-27 scores outlined just how successful AJ McKee was in the bout, though Isbulaev was never fully out of it. Afterwards, McKee admitted that he had \u201cunderestimated\u201d his opponent, referring to him as a champion.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s reclaiming gold that is on McKee\u2019s mind next however, and he called for just that following the win. The PFL\u2019s 145lb title sits vacant, and only Timur Khizriev, #1 at featherweight, sits ahead of AJ McKee.<\/p>\n
The 31-year old was joined in the winner\u2019s circle on Saturday by a familiar face to fight fans.\u00a0Liz Carmouche also made her case for a title shot undeniable at PFL San Diego, though that\u2019s not what the #2-ranked women\u2019s flyweight called for at the end of the night.<\/p>\n
Carmouche (26-8), a former Bellator flyweight champ, as well as a title challenger in both Strikeforce and the UFC, won the 2025 PFL World Tournament, and found herself paired up with fellow UFC vet Viviane Araujo at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, CA. The bout saw Araujo and Carmouche spend plenty of time clinched up along the fence, but in the second round, it was \u201cGirl-Rilla\u201d Carmouche hitting a guillotine choke and forcing the tap.<\/p>\n
At age 42, Carmouche has looked as good as ever, with just PFL promotional darling Dakota Ditcheva perched ahead of her in the rankings. The British star skipped the World Tournament last year, and has been out with injury; she\u2019s set to return against Denise Kielholtz later this summer.<\/p>\n
Should she win, Ditcheva vs. Carmouche for the vacant women\u2019s 125lb title seems like a no-brainer. Yet in the cage on Saturday, Carmouche called for something she\u2019s desired for a long time: a shot at a second title, at bantamweight. Neither Bellator nor the PFL have featured a women\u2019s bantamweight division, and Carmouche very much wants to lead one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AJ McKee, PFL San Diego official weigh-in Credit: PFL AJ McKee closed out Saturday\u2019s PFL San Diego with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[152274,145817,51690,152283,152275,152282,152277,43118,145830,86510,152281,152280,122248,152276,133290,74,76,75,152278,18873,152279],"class_list":["post-377915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-bellator","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-fighting","tag-gsp","tag-invicta","tag-jon-jones","tag-lfa","tag-martial-arts","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-one-championship","tag-one-fc","tag-pfl","tag-rizin","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-titan-fc","tag-ufc","tag-wsof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}