UFC veteran Khalil Rountree Jr is just a few days away from the biggest fight of his life and a shot at becoming the light heavyweight champion of the world as he takes on Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 307.
Yet there was once a time, and not even that long ago, when ‘The War Horse’ almost walked away from the sport of MMA entirely after a particularly frustrating negotiation with the UFC over his contract.
Khalil Rountree reveals how he was almost forced into retirement by UFC
Back in 2018, Khalil Rountree Jr was on a roll having dispatched both Paul Craig and Gokhan Saki in brutal fashion inside the very first round.
Then he ran into Johnny Walker, with the flashy Brazilian putting a halt to Rountree’s surge in less than two minutes, landing a vicious elbow to send ‘The War Horse’ crashing to the canvas.
It was a particularly brutal knockout loss, and one that spurred Rountree to travel to Thailand in the hopes of learning the fundamentals of Muay Thai; a sport in which knowing how to defend elbow strikes is just as important as knowing how to throw them.
“I made the decision to go to Thailand like I’ve got nothing else going on, I’m going to learn from this and go to Thailand to learn Muay Thai the right way,” Rountree explained in a fascinating interview with Demetrious Johnson via the Mighty YouTube channel.
“When I got to Thailand, it was nothing like I ever experienced. I went to a gym in Bangkok away from all the tourists and there was one guy there who was English-speaking… He told me ‘If you want to survive here, you got to learn the language, learn where to eat and how to get around’.
“I loved it, it was a new experience for me, and I never felt so welcomed in a country… I decided to stay longer than a month, I’ll stay for as long as I can… Almost three years, so I got there at the end of 2018, and then I was there all of 2019 and 2020 during Covid.”
By the time that the world began to open up from Covid lockdown, Rountree had fallen in love with the sport; to the point that he even asked the UFC if he could accept a few Muay Thai fights – unfortunately, that conversation quickly took a frustrating turn.
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“I only wanted to do Muay Thai, and I remember asking the UFC, can I fight Muay Thai please? They’re like no, just contractually no and I was like ‘I won’t even use my name’, my Thai trainer has a name for me – like my trainer already calls me something different [so] no one will know about this.”
Despite offering to return to the promotion to fulfill the remaining fights left on his contract, and vowing to use an alias out in Thailand, the UFC reportedly refused to budge – leaving Rountree with a tough choice to make.
“They were like ‘No’ and that was where there was a moment in my career when I announced like, ‘Hey guys, after my next fight I’m done, I’m retiring.’
“I’d made up my mind that I was going to live the rest of my life in Thailand, I was going to train Muay Thai, take Muay Thai fights and just live my life happy because when I got there, I was like this is all I want in my life.”
Whilst it is a shame that Rountree wasn’t given the opportunity to explore a career in professional Muay Thai, the decision from the UFC has certainly worked out well for ‘The War Horse’ as he prepares for a history-making matchup with Alex Pereira.
Interestingly, the fan-favorite veteran has recently teased that he’s got a ‘secret weapon’ up his sleeves ready for the title fight in Utah; a new technique that has reportedly never been seen before in MMA.
“I definitely do have something that has never been seen before, ever,” he told Megan Olivi via ESPN MMA, explaining how the new move could find a home this weekend in Salt Lake City.
“There are guys in the division that I can see it working on 100%, there could be a possibility of this happening, this move, this technique happening – it’s possible… Am I hunting for it? No, [but] if it presents itself then everyone will know ‘Oh s***, that’s it, that’s what he was talking about’.”
Khalil Rountree Jr vs Alex Pereira is set to go down this weekend in the main event of UFC 307, could this secret technique be something he picked up in Thailand as he focused on Muay Thai, rather than MMA?