Marcus McGhee Shares Philosophy on Fighting MMA Lab Teammates

Marcus McGhee (10-1) is set to face his biggest step in competition so far when he meets Petr Yan (18-5) at UFC Abu Dhabi on July 26.

McGhee is not the only UFC bantamweight contender from his gym. Led by former champ Sean O’Malley, the MMA Lab in Arizona is a hub of talented 135-pounders.  This includes Kyler Phillips and Mario Bautista, who defeated Patrick Mix at UFC 316.

McGhee revealed that his team has already discussed the possibility of facing each other. “The Maniac” says there are no ill feelings between them and they would preferably avoid fighting each other forever. However, with four elite bantamweights chasing gold, there is only so far they can go without meeting in the cage. If McGhee has to fight a teammate, he wants it to be for the title with a massive payday on offer. And if that inevitably happens, McGhee assures there will be no bad blood inside the MMA Lab.

“We’ve always spoken about it and obviously none of us are gonna fight for anything less than a belt and a lot of money,” McGhee told MMAjunkie.com. “But other than that, I don’t see an issue with it. We train together, we love each other, we care about each other. You’re telling us that we can’t go and build generational wealth with each other. I mean, I would love nothing more than to get rich with my brothers. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather not fight my teammates ever. I would rather that not be a part of our story ever… But at the end of the day we are all chasing the same thing. So one of them if ever was to be like, ‘Yeah I think we should both fight, we should do this because it’s for the belt. I want the belt, you got the belt.’ I would not take it as bad blood.”

McGhee is undefeated in four UFC wins with three finishes. Meanwhile, Yan has returned to the win column with two victories after dropping three in a row.