Khalil Rountree Jr. delivered an undeniably impressive performance against Alex Pereira.
After stringing together five straight wins inside the Octagon, ‘The War Horse’ went toe-to-toe with ‘Poatan’ at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. And though he put together one hell of a showing, he ultimately came up short, suffering a TKO in the fourth round of their light heavyweight headliner.
Looking back on the bout during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Rountree Jr. was thankful for the recognition he got from fighters and fans alike, even if it wasn’t the result he’d hoped for.
“I put my whole heart into that fight. Everyone was giving me props and congratulating me and telling me how much respect and admiration they had for me after the fight, but I wanted to win. I wasn’t there to be second place.
“The best thing that I did to balance it was just get back to training and realize that I still got to keep climbing. It was nice to have the motivation and the support from the fans and gain the attention of the fans, but I think that, mixed with getting back to training, the training helped the balance for sure.”
Khalil Rountree Jr. looks to get back into the win column at UFC Baku
Rountree Jr. will look to climb back into the win column on Saturday when the promotion heads to Azerbaijan for UFC Baku. In the main event of the evening, ‘The War Horse’ will take on former 205-pound titleholder Jamahal Hill.
Like Rountree Jr., Hill will be looking to bounce back after suffering a brutal third-round knockout loss against Jiri Prochazka in January.
