The Striking of Khalil Rountree (Patreon)

By Paul

Buried in the middle of the UFC Fight Night: Hermansson vs. Cannonier main card, Khalil Rountree returns to the octagon to face off against Ion Cuțelaba. Rountree has been in the UFC since 2016 and has an overall record of 4-3-1. Despite the mediocre win-loss ratio, what’s really fascinating to watch is how Rountree has completely changed his striking in his most recent fight against Eryk Anders. Before the Anders matchup, Rountree mixed things up and relocated his training camp to Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand. It’s too early to tell if this change will be better in the long run, but it did result in one of his best performances in the UFC. Although he was previously known as the guy who knocked out Gökhan Saki in MMA, Rountree’s striking was never highly regarded. Standing at 6’1” with a 76.5” reach, he isn’t the biggest in the light heavyweight division, nor does he have the longest reach. To separate himself from the pack (not to mention rebound from his first-round knockout loss against Johnny Walker), he needed to change things. It’s important to note that Rountree has been getting better and better with his striking, changes like this don’t happen overnight. Let’s look at his three most recent fights before he transformed into Sagat from Street Fighter against Anders.

In late 2017, Rountree faced off against Michał Oleksiejczuk. Oleksiejczuk was the underdog in this matchup, and Rountree came in as a -340 favorite. Rountree came out orthodox for this fight, possibly to prevent an open stance matchup (Oleksiejczuk is also traditionally a southpaw). What stands out right away is how undisciplined Rountree’s striking looks against Oleksiejczuk. Instead of bouncing in and out to prevent Oleksiejczuk from getting a read on his timing, Rountree was flatfooted for most of the fight, allowing Oleksiejczuk to set the tempo and control the pace. Rountree kept his hands low and opted to feint with only his upper body, meaning Oleksiejczuk had less threats to worry about. With the exception of low kicks and body kicks thrown sporadically, Rountree spent most of this fight spamming Oleksiejczuk with wild hooks to the head and body. In the first minute of the first round, there were over six hooks that flew wildly over Oleksiejczuk’s head, not to mention the times that Rountree whiffed at air when he thought he was countering. It was clear after a few minutes that cardio was going to be an issue, and Rountree was lucky to survive until the final bell. Oleksiejczuk kept chipping away at Rountree’s midsection with body shots, further depleting his gas tank. Although he lost a unanimous decision, Oleksiejczuk tested positive for clomiphene, an anti-estrogenic substance. The loss was overturned and Rountree made some noticeable changes to his striking.

Slated to become Gökhan Saki’s second meal, Rountree walked into that fight with many fans expecting him to become another KO victim. What ended up happening was quite the opposite. Instead of the frantic Rountree we saw against Oleksiejczuk, this version appeared more in control of his movements and slid from side to side while throwing out jabbing feints. Rountree also made a concentrated effort to lead and kept circling out from Saki’s right side. It was good to see Rountree return to southpaw, and even though Saki is the more decorated striker, it’s hard to deny the advantages that a disciplined southpaw possesses. Rountree was diligent about making sure his right foot was always to the outside of Saki, a technical slip up he committed against Oleksiejczuk numerous times. Although he did throw hooks, they were measured and Rountree was able to get right back on defense whether they connected or missed. The end came early in round 1 when a straight left caught Saki right in the chin after a sloppy stance switch. Rountree got the biggest win of his career, and it looked like he was on his way to bigger and better things. Well, bigger things anyways.  

A few months later, Rountree got matched up against Johnny Walker. Against Walker, he came out in the same manner as he did against Saki and started bouncing around with his hands low. Trying to gauge his timing and distance, Rountree opted to feint with his jabs and check Walker’s lead hand. Unlike his previous fight, Rountree didn’t focus on outside foot position and was okay with Walker taking the lead on that. When you look at the other notable southpaw in the division, Dominick Reyes, notice how he always keeps his lead foot on the outside and will reset his position when he feels that he’s out of place. There are a couple of instances where not having your lead foot out is part of your overall striking strategy, Miguel Cotto used to allow his opponents take the outside foot position so he can blast them with uppercuts on the inside. This might have been an early feeling out process for Rountree given that the height and reach of Walker is exceptional (6’ 6” with an 82” reach, only second to Jon Jones), but he wasn’t able to sit back for long. Walker calmly swatted away the lead hand of Rountree, forcing him backwards and on the defensive. Once Rountree was on the retreat, Walker threw a right high kick – right hook that clipped Rountree and left him open for left straight. This didn’t knock Rountree out, but it did give Walker the double collar tie he wanted, and a knockout from an elbow came soon after. Despite showing an improvement in his striking game, he was no match for pure athleticism and size of Walker. Knowing that he had to switch up, Rountree opted to pack his bags and head to Thailand to learn Muay Thai from the source.

In his most recent fight against Eryk Anders, Rountree debuted a whole new style and made quite an impression. Even though he’s only spent one full camp in Thailand, Rountree made the most of his time there by revamping a lot of his striking tools. Gone were the side to side lateral movements and bouncing around, Rountree replaced it by constantly picking up his lead leg and staying light on it. Despite it being another southpaw vs southpaw match-up, Rountree made it exciting by switching between his pawing jab and constant low kicks that damaged the lead leg of Anders. Although Rountree never shied away from kicking his opponents, it was fascinating to see the speed and precision of the kicks that he threw in this fight. They were thrown repeatedly at the same spots over and over: inside of the thigh with his right leg, outside of the thigh with his left leg. Anders soon faced a dilemma—he can either try to tough it out and try to time the kicks with punches of his own or keep switching his stance to minimize the damage. Unfortunately for Anders, the forward pressure of Rountree didn’t give him a lot of room to move effectively, and he would eat jabs and straights from up top whenever he hesitated for just a moment. We saw in Rountree’s fight against Saki that he can do a good job of feinting with his jabs, but now that he has effective kicks to pair them with, he can become a true threat on the feet. He’s always had power in his hands (as evident in his Saki fight), but now he was learning to not solely rely on them. Another reason Rountree was able to find more success with his hands was the fact that he wasn’t keeping them lower at his waist. Adapting the Thai style has the added benefit of keeping his hands high and constantly aware of the clinch threats/attempts, but it also has the serendipitous side effect of giving Rountree a quicker response time when it comes to his own attacks. Rountree delivered 4 (four!) knockdowns in this fight, and there was no quit in Anders. By the time Bruce Buffer read the judges’ scorecards, it was obvious who had won.

Rountree’s next opponent, Ion Cuțelaba, is a decorated sambo practitioner that has a record similar to him. 11 of his 14 wins are by knockout, so hopefully he’ll keep it standing and attempt to answer some more questions we have of Rountree’s muay Thai. How will it hold against takedown attempts? If Cuțelaba pressures Rountree against the fence, will we see the same kind of kicking game? Has Rountree added in more elbow strikes to complement his hooks? We’ll find out on Saturday whether Rountree’s striking is the real deal, or if it’s still an unfinished work of art.