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Khalil Rountree credits his team for helping him battle through adversity heading into his fight against Jamahal Hill.
Rountree (14-6 MMA, 10-6 UFC) defeated Hill by unanimous decision in Saturday’s UFC on ABC 8 headliner at Baku Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan. The former title challenger was able to knock down and outstrike Hill, but wasn’t 100 percent going into the matchup.
Rountree opened up on his struggles to make it to the fight.
“About halfway through training camp, when I was training jiu-jitsu, was the first time I felt some discomfort in my knee,” Rountree said on his YouTube channel. “Just from training with bigger guys and doing four sessions per day on top of like running and jiu-jitsu and pads, that’s when I first started feeling the discomfort. Then it only grew from there until one day I woke up, and it was just really hard for me to walk and even stand. So, I got it checked out and ended up having a torn meniscus. Once I found out what the injury was, I think it was only about three weeks away from actual fight day.
“So, it was obviously stressful, but I just had amazing, positive support to keep going, to not let it affect my mental and do whatever I could to push through it. … Initially I was devastated, and I wasn’t really able to train how I really wanted to, but it was kind of a blessing in disguise because I came into the cage really fresh because I haven’t been able to spar in three weeks. There hasn’t really been a lot of contact. The last three weeks had just been recovery on top of getting sick during fight week. Had I not had such a positive, supportive group of coaches, I don’t think I would have gotten this far and done it on my own. I think I would have crumbled. So, it all paid off.”
Rountree rebounded from his title loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 307 by defeating former champion Hill. The Season 23 “Ultimate Fighter” finalist now has won six of his past seven fights.
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