Khalil Rountree received praise and some tactical advice from Irish megastar Conor McGregor following Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Salt Lake City.
Rountree went toe-to-toe with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira for nearly four rounds before falling to the ‘Brazilian Boogeyman’ in a most brutal fashion. Still, ‘The War Horse’ received immense praise from fighters and fans for holding his own and tagging Pereira with a few big strikes throughout the entertaining affair.
Appearing on the Pound 4 Pound podcast with Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo, Rountree revealed that McGregor had reached out to him following the fight to offer some kind words and a little bit of advice on what he could have done differently against Pereira.
“I still haven’t watched the fight, as a whole, since it happened, but I did get… It was really nice,” Rountree said. “A couple of days after the fight, I got some messages from Conor and it was really cool to get some messages from him, but one thing that he pointed out was that I could have put more pressure.
“Just like you were saying, when he was going up against the cage, yeah, he has that left hook, but if I would have been just a little bit more relentless with my pressure and not backed off so much and retook the center of the cage, I think I would have been able to apply a little bit more damage to him. So, I think if I were to go back and replay this fight, I’d probably just be a little bit more aggressive, like smart aggressive.”
Khalil Rountree’s stock goes up with strong showing against Alex Pereira
Up until the finish, Rountree was actually winning the fight on all three judges’ scorecards.
Through the first three rounds, Pereira had landed more strikes and did so at a higher percentage clip, but it was Rountree who was landing the more impactful shots, including a well-timed hook in the second round that nearly put ‘Poatan’ on the mat.
Despite losing the fight, there’s no doubt that Rountree’s stock has gone up significantly and one or two more wins in the division could very well earn him another crack at Pereira. Until then, ‘The War Horse’ is setting his sights on a scrap with former light heavyweight titleholder Jamahal Hill.
