UFC light heavyweight veteran Khalil Rountree captured his second straight victory by planishing Karl Roberson at the UFC Vegas 50 mixed martial arts (MMA) event last Sat. night (March 12, 2022) at APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After the fight, the 32 year-old “War Horse” spoke candidly with reporters at the UFC Vegas 50 post-fight press conference and at times, struggled to keep his emotions in check.
“Everybody else has their own fight,” Rountree said (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “For me, part of that is how do you get a man off of the couch, from killing himself with eating trashy food, and smoking cigarettes, and watching porn, and doing all this toxic shit to be an all-star athlete? The switch just doesn’t flip like that. It’s a constant progression and I think that there’s millions of people out there that kind of need help in those steps of like, ‘Hey, guide me here.’ Yeah, I’m cheering for you, but how do I do it? What’s next?”
Rountree is no stranger to expressing his emotions, having previously shared a painful story about his father’s murder while competing on Season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).
“It might sound a bit cliche, or you’ve heard this before, but your life matters,” Rountree said. “You can be special. You can be strong. You can be seen. You can be heard. Life is beautiful if you make it that way. It doesn’t have to be how everybody else makes it seem. Stick around. Stick around another day.”
UFC middleweight contender Sean Strickland was not impressed.
“Gayest shit I’ve ever seen and I love bi women so I’ve seen a lot of gay,” the No. 4-ranked middleweight wrote on Twitter. “Yeah you’re really special, a special little snowflake. This man is the definition of a PC BETA male. You all would hate him. Seriously, being in the same room as him makes me cringe.”
Here’s a clip from Rountree’s finish at UFC Vegas 50, in case you were wondering what a “PC BETA male” looks like.
Dude… look at the fucking violence of this finish.
Good lord. pic.twitter.com/5h1pWOSTYu— MartialMind (@MartialMind1) March 13, 2022
Compare that to Strickland’s best moment against Jack Hermansson just last month:
BIG DROP TO END THE ROUND!
The #UFCVegas47 main event keeps rolling on @ESPNPlus. pic.twitter.com/Vzryv4MEbz
— UFC (@ufc) February 6, 2022
I think the footage speaks for itself.
“Khalil CANCEL CULTURE Rountree… Khalil KAREN Rountree… Khalil LET ME SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER Rountree… Khalil THAT IS NOT OK Rountree… Khalil I’M CALLING THE COPS Rountree,” Strickland continued. “Any of these sticking???”
Strickland (25-3) is a former welterweight who recently settled in at middleweight, so there’s probably zero chance of the heavier Rountree (10-5) getting an opportunity to face “Tarzan” inside the cage, which adds an extra layer of lameness to Strickland’s tough guy Twitter tirade.
“You guys have no concept of who this man is,” Strickland said. “He sucks so much. If you ever hung out with him for more than 60 seconds you would hate him. God he sucks. Last time I sparred Rountree I bloodied him up while laughing the entire time and that was the last time he sparred me lol.”
Rountree has yet to respond.
I’m not sure what the end game is, from Strickland’s perspective. The industry might be willing to tolerate another Colby Covington, but there’s definitely no room for another War Machine.