Khalil Rountree Jr. moved back home to Las Vegas in March 2021, returning from roughly two years spent living in Thailand on a two-fight skid, having gone 4-5 with one no contest during his first 10 appearances in the UFC.
At the time, most would have characterized the light heavyweight as a bust. A hyped prospect that never quite put it together with the consistency needed to truly excel at the highest level in the sport.
Sure, there had been positive moments — knockout wins over Paul Craig and Gokhan Saki, the dynamic performance against Eryk Anders at UFC 236 — but they were outnumbered by the uneven efforts and disappointing results, prompting many to assume that the remainder of Rountree Jr.’s career would likely continue down a similar path.
Win one, lose one. Win one, lose two. Win two, lose one. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Rountree Jr. faces off with Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 307, with the 205-pound championship hanging in the balance.
Though his appointment as the next challenger for the vaunted Brazilian titleholder caught some off guard, he will make the walk this weekend on a five-fight winning streak, unbeaten since moving back home and starting to put all the pieces together inside and outside the Octagon.
“Absolutely not!” he said with a laugh and a smile when asked if he could have ever envisioned returning to Las Vegas sparking the kind of ascent he’s enjoyed over the last three-and-a-half years. “Naw man, there is some divine movement going on with everything.
“The streak? Yeah, I thought that could be possible, especially after the second one, third one, I was like, ‘Cool; we’re doing all the right things.’ But then all the other stuff that is completely out of our control? Man…”
That “other stuff” includes a vulnerable post-fight interview with Paul Felder following his punishing second-round finish of Karl Roberson where he spoke openly about his journey from being an overweight teen, struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts; how he wanted to be a beacon for others that might be suffering with similar issues, or any issues at all, and the overwhelming love, support, and outreach that followed.
It includes a marquee assignment against former champion Jamahal Hill at UFC 303 being scuttled after he was shipped a supplement containing a banned substance, leading to his self-reporting the violation to the UFC and its in-house anti-doping team.
And it includes not knowing when he would be able to return to competition as the Nevada State Athletic Commission reviewed his case and pondered additional punishments given that his fight with Hill was scheduled to take place under its jurisdiction.
“Preparing for 303 and the supplement thing; that crushed me and I was the lowest of the low, not really knowing what’s next,” admitted Rountree Jr. “But my coaches, John (Wood) and Lorenzo (Pavlica), holding true to their promise, (gave me a) slap in the face — ‘No! You’re showing up to training tomorrow! We don’t care if you’re fighting next year or next week, show up to training, keep your diet on point. We still got a goal. This is a bump in the road.’
“To get the call about the title fight, and literally in the same week, the commission being like, ‘We looked over everything and there is no problem here,’ it’s like, ‘This is ridiculous!’ It’s been crazy, but I’m soaking it all in and just embracing it all.”
THE PUZZLE
Each time we’ve connected over the last several years, Rountree Jr. and I have always spoken in terms of “the puzzle” — a tried-and-true metaphor for life, career, and the multitudes of pieces we all contain, which can be neatly organized or or strewn about, upside down or missing from the box entirely.
A few years ago, he said the pieces had been organized in colour groupings, everything right side up, so he could get a sense of what the finished product may look like. Prior to his December win over Anthony “Lionheart” Smith, he told me there were no edges.
“The puzzle is starting from the inside and just expanding, and I don’t know where the end is,” he said. “There are no corner pieces. There are no edges. The centre of the puzzle is expanding outward. I can see the picture it’s creating, but I don’t know what the edges of the puzzle look like.”
In keeping with tradition, I circled back again this week.
“Man, we’re gonna need a bigger table,” he said with a deep laugh. “We’re gonna need a bigger table. I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to being done. I still feel so much growth happening, and I think there is so much more room and space for growth and maturity and even just getting better.
“I think we can see how the picture looks, it makes sense now, but I think we’re gonna need a bigger table.”
Puzzles don’t usually come with “expansion packs,” but that’s how Rountree Jr. is looking at things just a couple days ahead of challenging for UFC gold, and understandably so, as his progression to this point has always been about much more than just fighting.
The emotion that poured out of him in that memorable post-fight conversation with Felder following his win over Roberson became part of the impetus for the UFC detailing Rountree Jr.’s journey in its UFC Connected series.
In the powerful 11-minute feature, the Las Vegas native and his mother, Taryn Moret, discussed innumerable difficult and defining moments in his life: his father’s murder when he was working as the road manager for Boyz II Men when Rountree Jr. was just two years old, the bullying he endured in middle school and high school, the addiction issues and depression that followed; and the night he realized he needed to make changes.
Since then, he’s continued to be open about his past, and vocal about his desire to bring a title back home to Las Vegas, a city that outsiders know almost exclusively for The Strip and its vacation allure, but locals understand is a difficult place to come up, especially when you’re a bright but introverted young black male just trying to find your place in the world.
“I think that for me and for my story, this is a lot more than fighting,” the 34-year-old began. “Fighting is definitely the vehicle, but there is something in my heart that wants it to be more, and the connection that I have with people, the response that I have with people, I think it’s more than fighting. I really do.
“I think it’s real cool, especially being a guy from Las Vegas, where stuff like this doesn’t happen in Las Vegas; champions don’t necessarily come out of that place,” he added with a laugh. “I had this vision of creating that story, and I think it’s really cool to spark that seed of inspiration for whatever young kid or adult, because I started when I was 20, to think, ‘If I can’t find my way in Las Vegas, I can either fight or make something else out of myself, and it’s truly possible.’”
Saturday at UFC 307, with what he called “a pretty chunky crowd” of supporters in attendance at Delta Center, Rountree Jr. can add to his incredible story by winning a fight many didn’t anticipate seeing, and few are giving him a chance in.
A LIVE DOG WITH SERIOUS WEAPONS
As much as many people were surprised — aghast even — when it was announced in July that Rountree Jr. would be facing Pereira this weekend, they probably shouldn’t be, considering the challenger politely requested the matchup back in December following his devastating third-round stoppage win over former title challenger Anthony Smith.
“It’s really cool,” said the challenger, speaking about the fight coming together and his proposal eventually being accepted. “Like I said from the beginning — I had a feeling I had to work my way there, but I knew no matter what, when the time did come, there would be a large number of fans that would be excited for this matchup. I always knew that, and that’s why I called for it.
“I think it’s perfect timing. Had it not happened the way that it has — if he would have gone and fought someone else and lost, or if I would have gone and fought someone else before and lost, it wouldn’t have the same effect.
“While we’re both doing our thing, while we’re both winning, it’s like, ‘Let’s make it happen.’”
Some of the hesitation around accepting this pairing as the next light heavyweight title fight certainly stems from Magomed Ankalaev continuing to linger at the top of the division, with results that merit the grappler from Dagestan receiving another opportunity to challenge for championship gold.
Another piece of it is surely that Rountree Jr. hasn’t navigated a gauntlet of top contenders like so many others have been forced through in other weight classes, and comes in stationed at No. 8 in the divisional rankings.
But athletes like Belal Muhammad and Merab Dvalishvili having to cobble together double-digit winning streaks before fighting for gold shouldn’t be the norm, and sometimes, the explosive potential of a matchup should supersede any other traditional criteria that seemingly need to be met to justify or validate a title matchup, and this one definitely one of those times.
Pereira has been a force of nature since entering the UFC less than three years ago, and somehow even more impressive since migrating to the light heavyweight ranks, winning the title in his second fight at 205 pounds before successfully defending his belt twice this year with highlight-reel finishes of former champions Jahamal Hill and Jiri Prochazka.
As for the challenger, his current run of success includes four punishing finishes, and a quick scan of those fight-ending sequences shows that there is something different about the way Rountree Jr. fights that makes him an intriguing underdog in Saturday’s main event.
There is an explosiveness to his offence that no one else in the division possesses, as well as a distinct meanness to the way he attacks.
He believes there is one other element that often gets discounted or overlooked entirely as well.
“I think that it’s a mixture of that meanness, but also, I’m not an idiot,” offers Rountree Jr., chasing his words with a quick chuckle. “I think often times my intelligence often gets overlooked. I never really hear people speak about, ‘Oh, he’s smart’ and I feel like a lot of the decisions I make are because I can analyze certain things and see certain things in the cage, in the moment.
“So mixing those two up and just having this natural power that I think a lot of guys he’s fought didn’t have. The series with (Israel Adesanya) and stuff was great, but I think I possess a little different power than Izzy does.
“Line them all up and everything that I’ve done shows that yeah man, I’m a different challenge for this guy, so I would imagine that things aren’t going to go the way that people expect them to go.”
And should he follow in the footsteps of Leon Edwards and author a serious championship upset in Utah, what can fans expect from the moment he stands in the centre of the Octagon, hears Bruce Buffer exclaim “And New!” and feels that UFC light heavyweight belt get wrapped around his waist?
“I’ve replayed multiple scenarios,” Rountree Jr. explained. “The first one was that I may just break down and crumble (laughs), but then there’s another version that I just stand there with pride — with strength and pride because I’ve seen (that moment) as possible. I did everything it took to get there, I put in the work, and I didn’t shy away from getting there, so there are two different ways.
“Either way, whatever happens in that moment, however I feel, I’m just gonna let it be. I’m just gonna let it fly.”
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