Get ready for a few minutes of madness. That has been the story of
McKinney’s career. A former collegiate wrestler with some accurate
striking, “T.Wrecks” looks to score a quick finish and figure out
the rest later. It has mostly worked, but things clearly go off the
rails—if they are ever even on the rails to begin with—after a
certain point. Only three of McKinney’s 17 pro fights have made it
past the three-minute park, two of which he has lost. Still, there
is no overstating exactly how effective McKinney is to start his
fights, as he has an uncanny ability to immediately find accurate
punches and is more than willing to ride out a scramble in search
of a submission. He draws the older and more experienced of the two
Bonfim brothers debuting on this card here. While also the less
flashy of the two siblings, he might be the better fighter, a
consistent all-terrain competitor who is willing to take advantage
of whatever the opponent presents, all while buoyed by some
thudding punching power. By default, Bonfim seems content to keep
things at a slow pace, land some hard counters and let the chips
fall where they may, so it will be interesting to see exactly how
he handles the absolute whirlwind of McKinney’s early offense. This
is essentially a coinflip and Bonfim may just be good enough to
beat McKinney at his own game, but the American’s diversity of
attack and speed advantage earn him the nod. The pick is McKinney
via first-round submission.
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