While the UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is known to sleep people with his left hook, after UFC 307, it seems like he now has the ability to make his foes admire his fight IQ as well. His last opponent, Khalil Rountree recently had a conversation with the Pound 4 Pound podcast team and that’s when he opened up about the most underrated aspect of Poatan’s game.
Speaking to Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo, the ‘War Horse’ revealed what surprised him the most about the Brazilian. Rountree admired the Brazilian’s ability to mix up strategies mid-fight and between rounds.
Rountree actually ended up winning R1 and R2 but Pereira’s adjustments mean, that by the time the championship rounds began, he would actually have a shot to finish the fight on his terms, like he did.
“the ability to mix up the strategy mid-fight in between rounds because you know everytime round 1, round 2, I won but he just kept making adjustments and I think he made very smart adjustments…I’d say the biggest surprise for me was the intelligence you know As stoic as he is and stone-faced, I do think he has a smart brain.”
Pereira has one of the slickest moveset in the light heavyweight division. His calf kicks hit you in a particular spot and he hides them by not using his hips to throw them. He did the same to Rountree as well but eventually followed it up with a quick and accurate jab, chipping away at the American.
In the meantime, Rountree has reflected on the “inevitable” bout with Jamahal Hill, sharing his thoughts on a potential fight with the fellow American.
Rountree “excited” to face Hill – “It’s almost inevitable”
UFC 307 went down as another banger of a PPV card for the promotion all thanks to Pereira and Rountree. They transformed a rather bland and lackluster card into an exciting spectacle. But despite a painful loss, Khalil Rountree is appreciative of the support he received following the event.
While he got his face restructured by the Brazilian, making it a bloody mess, Rountree is as motivated as ever. Now, in a recent exclusive to YouTuber Kevin Iole, Rountree revealed that he is focused on climbing his way back to the LHW title.
And in pursuit of the 205-lb belt, he is even ready to go against former champion, Jamahal Hill.
“Absolutely. I think it’s almost inevitable, right? I think he’s ranked No. 3. I think anyone up there in the Top 5 is kind of inevitable so let’s see what happens. I think pretty shortly here I’ll be talking to the matchmakers and the bosses and see what they think.”
Though he is excited to fight again, the 34-year-old explained that he’d be back only by 2025 – probably by Q1 next year. Now, Hill has earlier been defeated by Poatan in under 3 minutes of the first round by a vicious KO. And he has been rather salty ever since.
Even after witnessing the banger of a main event at UFC 307, he yawned at it. Pereira already joked that Hill was yawning because he just woke up from the UFC 300 KO. Maybe when Rountree takes him on, he can ask him a bit more about it.
