Lloyd McKinney: If I Put My Hands on Jon Barker's Chin, I Can Put Him in Danger

Nick Caron

Jun 7, 2018

As the UFC’s newly-created flyweight division grows, promotions all across the country are beginning to give more emphasis to the smaller, often times more technical and even more exciting fighters.

Fighters such as La Crosse, Wisconsin’s Lloyd “Albie” McKinney (@albiemckinney) are taking advantage of that opportunity to shine in regional MMA promotions as they work toward their dreams of getting a televised fight.

“I feel like 125 is my natural weight class,” he told Bleacher Report MMA. “That’s what I wrestled at for four years in college. I feel the strongest and most athletic at that weight.”

While he prefers fighting in the flyweight division, McKinney has also competed at 135 pounds as a bantamweight in order to get better opponents.

“Whatever the best opportunity is at, I’ll fight at either 125 or 135. It just depends on the opponent and the situation,” he said. “The 125 class is still developing, but I think by the time I’m ready to go to a bigger organization, that’s definitely the weight I’ll be at.”

McKinney is coming off of two fights already in 2012, the first being a win against Kurtis Ehrhorn back in February. While most had McKinney winning on the scorecards at the time, the fight was actually called due to a disqualification in the second round—when Ehrhorn repeatedly spit out his mouthguard during the bout.

“That was definitely the strangest, most unique situation I’ve been in, in any competition I’ve ever been in,” he said. “It was more frustrating because I trained for six weeks, hard, and I feel like I was just finding my rhythm and he was kind of fading. Instead of letting the fight play out, he just kind of took the easy way out.

“I don’t want people to think that I’m a dirty fighter, but I feel like he should’ve had that situation sorted out prior to the fight.”

After that controversial fight, McKinney battled Bill Friday in April, a contest which saw him get submitted by a guillotine choke in the second round.

“I knew it was in deep, but I didn’t know it was in that deep,” McKinney admitted. “It was kind of a learning experience.”

Since that lesson, he has been training extensively on how to keep utilizing his great wrestling while avoiding putting himself into risky situations.

“I’ve been working on my guillotine defense a lot. I’ve made adjustments in training where I’ll do sparring where I’m going for the feet, going for the takedown and guys will jump for guillotines,” he said. “It really just comes down to me implementing better takedown strategies. I don’t always need the double-leg. I can get a single-leg or I can get into a clinch position, where my neck is not as vulnerable, and get it down from there.”

He hopes that his improved submission defense will serve him well in his next bout against Jon Barker on May 18th, 2012’s "Driller Promotions: Downtown Showdown V" event from the Hyatt in Minneapolis, MN. It also helps that he got to train daily with Barker’s most recent opponent, Tony Belvedere.

“[Barker] is a real tough fighter, he was ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin,” McKinney continued. “Tony Belvedere, one of my good friends and training partners, beat him in his last fight. I was sitting cageside for that one, so I got to see his skills first-hand and I think he’s a very good fighter. Obviously I think there are some things that I can exploit in his game and I don’t really want to show my hand, but I wouldn’t have taken the fight if I didn’t think I could win.”

Known primarily for his wrestling, McKinney remains confident in his standup and believes he can finish fights from there as well.

“If I can put my hands on his chin, I can put him in some danger,” he said. “But Travis is a very durable fighter. Tony hit him with some good shots and he took them. I didn’t get to see much of his grappling, so that might be something that I want to test the waters with.”

After a loss, many fighters look to take a step back and gain some confidence against a lower-level opponent who they are more likely beat. McKinney doesn’t see it that way, though. He’d prefer to fight better opponents, even if things don’t always go his way.

“I just want to fight quality opponents. I want fights on my record where, win or lose, people can’t just say, ‘That was a can.’ I’m not trying to pad my record. I want fights that will help me grow.”

Jon Barker definitely brings that to the table and it will be interesting to see whether McKinney’s improved game is enough to do what his teammate Tony Belvedere did, and get a big win over a high-quality opponent on Friday night.

Tickets are still available for the show and they can be purchased online or at the door on Friday night.