The UFC octagon is headed to Salt Lake City, Utah for an epic light heavyweight title ringer between UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira & the #8 ranked Khalil Rountree. Merely days ahead of the fight, Rountree’s coach, John Wood sat down with Daniel Cormier to share a few key details about their strategy to fight ‘Poatan’ that involves fighting fire with fire.
In fact, as revealed by Wood, Rountree is going to take a chance, dance with death, as he wants to stand and bang with ‘Stonehands’. In the recent exclusive with on DC’s YouTube channel, Wood explain their camps’ dangerous game plan and claimed that Pereira was going to break.
He then proudly claimed that while they trained for takedowns it won’t be coming from Rountree during the fight.
” We’re always defending takedowns, shooting out own takedowns, we’re doing everything everyday but I do stand and say that if a takedown happens, it ain’t coming from our side, it’s coming from that side.”
Mentioning how Pereira has resorted to takedowns earlier, Wood asked DC to bring up any such video of Rountree, goading that their strategy revolves around the challenger beating Pereira in his own game, striking.
However, this open admission got Cormier concerned because, on October 5, Rountree will have to stand and trade with one of the best kickboxers in the UFC, not to mention his nuclear missile of a left hook. In fact, DC warned Wood of the repercussions but the coach remained super confident in his fighter.
Meanwhile, Pereira‘s former foe, exposed the champion’s obvious vulnerability and explained how the #8 ranked fighter has a winning chance despite being a heavy underdog.
Hill points out Pereira’s weakness
Former LHW champion, Jamahal Hill who fought Alex at UFC 300 is back in the headlines, this time ahead of the UFC 307 main event title fight. And according to Hill, Rountree’s stance will give him an advantage since Pereira struggles with southpaws.
Mentioning his second UFC bout against Israel Adesanya, Hill pointed out that, Pereira got KOed when Izzy switched to southpaw.
“If you actually look at even [Pereira’s] kickboxing career and all that, southpaws and southpaw is a stance that gives him trouble. Can he beat southpaws? Yes. But I haven’t seen him really dominate a southpaw that has multiple threats from southpaw.”
Furthermore, he added,
“These are the things that I pay attention to, the details and things like that. If you have weapons from southpaw, he struggles, he definitely struggles.”
Now, while the Brazilian might be the massive betting favorite, the challenger, Khalil Rountree does have his arsenal of weapons. For starters, he too, hits like a tank and there’s actually a very good chance he ends the Pereira hype train right under Dana White’s nose!
