Bellator 187 ‘McKee vs Moore’ recap with results, .gifs and interviews

Bellator 187 “McKee vs. Moore" took place earlier today (Fri., Nov. 10, 2017) at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. The Irish fight fans were treated to a main event with a local boy looking for a huge upset against a Bellator star.

“The Pikeman” Brian Moore came into the night 10-5 and fresh off a win from Bellator’s last card in Budapest, Hungary. The Straight Blast Gym Featherweight would have a huge mountain to climb with A.J. McKee though, coming into Dublin a perfect 9-0 with six finishes.

The first round didn’t go entirely as McKee had planned. He dropped Moore with a shot 27 seconds into Round 1, but missed two opportunities at a guillotine choke when Moore shot for takedowns, then was cut open with an elbow when he went for a takedown of his own.

McKee was visibly slower in the second round and Moore used that to his advantage, continuing to pressure McKee and tagging him repeatedly with shots, then stuffing any takedown attempts McKee made to try and turn things around. It was tied at one apiece going into round three.

One hard punch early in the third round changed the entire fight. McKee jumped on top of the dazed Moore, he gave up his back trying to get away, McKee got one hook in and immediately sunk the arm under the chin for the rear-naked choke at 0:42.

A victorious A.J. McKee spoke to Jimmy Smith after the fight.

“Round three I know I’m here in Dublin, I ain’t letting it go to the scorecard, you know how that shit goes. Thank you Dublin, thank you everybody for coming out. I’m coming to get it!!”

Hometown striker Sinead Kavanagh got the call to take a Featherweight bout with Maria Casanova. You’ll spend longer reading this paragraph than the fight itself took as Kavanagh dropped Casanova with a hard right hand and got the TKO stoppage in 34 seconds.

A very pleased Kavanagh spoke to Jimmy Smith after the quick finish.

“Yeah everything went fine. Last time in America it was a tough fight, we thought we won it, yeah but it’s good to get the win in the hometown. We went back to basics. I was feeding out the lefts just to get that right because that’s the power shot, boom, good night. I’m right here I’m ready now to fight. Let’s go.”

“Baby Slice” Kevin Ferguson Jr., son of the late Kimbo Slice, took his third pro fight at a catch weight of 165 lbs. against 1-0 fighter Fred Freeman.

Early Freeman looked to dance around Ferguson and find the range for strikes, but after landing a kick to the body Ferguson rushed him into the fence. Freeman stifled the first takedown attempt, but Ferguson ultimately threw him to the ground and took Freeman’s neck when he tried to turn to get up. Seconds later Ferguson recorded his first submission via RNC at 1:47.

Jimmy Smith spoke to the victory “Baby Slice” after his win in Dublin.

“It meant a lot. It’s my first submission. It felt great. We got the best coaches in MMA. Yeah man I love fighting overseas. I appreciate it. I love it here. I love it in this cage. And I love getting knockouts but it feels good to get a submission too. I’m learning, I’m just starting doing it, so I’ll just keep growing as you can see. I’m getting better and better.”

Middleweights started the night on Spike as Charlie Ward did battle with John Redmond. In all likelihood you heard about this fight already as Conor McGregor made quite a scene when his friend and teammate Ward scored a knockout victory late at 4:59 in the first round.

Once the fracas in the cage settled down, Ward spoke to Jimmy Smith about his performance.

“He surprised me with his height. I knew that I was going to come out in the second round anyway and take his head off. First round, second round, who gives a f—k?”

For complete Bellator 187 results and coverage click here.