Khalil Rountree Jr. absorbed a considerable amount of damage in his knockout loss to Alex Pereira atop the UFC 307 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this year in Salt Lake City, but not until very recently did “War Horse” reveal just how bad things got inside the Octagon.
In fact, he “may never be the same” after facial surgery.
“In the fight where this cut happened, I got hit, and boom — I knew I had gotten hit hard because I started to see my vision kind of blur a little bit,” Rountree told the JAXXON Podcast. “But the second one that landed, the one that actually split my eye, in that moment I went blind. But f*ck it, I’m going to keep going.”
His ability to keep going helped him grow as a fighter.
“I didn’t see anything after that, just light,” Rountree continued. “I didn’t see shadows, I didn’t see anything. It was like if someone put a frosted film. So I can’t see, I’m f*cking blind. But whatever, I’m not going to give up. The sensation, I didn’t feel anything, the adrenaline was too high, but I realized it was there. My eye was f*cked up, but I’ll deal with it later.”
That is the price to pay when facing “ungodly” power.
Rountree (13-6) is expected to remain out of action until the second half of 2025. The loss to Pereira (12-2) snapped a five-fight win streak but his gutsy performance will likely keep “War Horse” at or near the top half of the division when he returns later next year.