Sean Strickland has squashed his beef with Khalil Rountree.
On Saturday, Rountree will return to the Octagon for his first world title opportunity when he challenges reigning light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. Before attempting to shock the world against one of the heaviest hitters in the game today, Rountree spoke with press members during Wednesday’s media day.
There, ‘The War Horse’ addressed his ongoing spat with the former middleweight titleholder who dubbed Rountree a “beta male b*tch” after the 205-pound title challenger got emotional during a post-fight interview two years ago.
According to Rountree, Strickland caught up with him at The APEX in Las Vegas a few months back and apologized for his words.
“Honestly, the last interaction that I had with Sean Strickland was at the UFC [Performance Institute], it was literally the day after Dan Ige stepped in that fight [on] like three hours, four hours’ notice or something like that,” Rountree said. “I was going into the P.I., I saw Dan Ige, walked right up to him, gave him his props for having balls of steel just going in there on such short notice.
“Out of the blue, Sean Strickland comes up to me. He approached me and just said ‘Khalil, I apologize, I’m a dumb ass, I actually kind of like you. I think you’re a liberal but overall, I like you or respect you.’ Something along those lines.”
Khalil Rountree says Sean Strickland apologized to him ahead of #UFC307.
"He approached me and he said, 'Khalil, I apologize. I'm a dumbass. I actually kind of like you. I think you're liberal.'" pic.twitter.com/RuAkZgcG88
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) October 2, 2024
Khalil Rountree Isn’t Concerning Himself with What Sean Strickland Says About Him
Though things seem copacetic between the two behind the scenes, that didn’t stop Strickland from tearing into Rountree during an interview with The Schmo just last month. ‘Tarzan’ labeled Rountree a “liberal c*ck beta male” and made it clear that the two of them can’t be friends.
Sean Strickland explains why he doesn't like Khalil Rountree, and tells some stories about interactions he's had with him in the past 😬
🎥 @TheSchmo312 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/p9AUNDEI43
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 28, 2024
Knowing the words they shared behind closed doors, Khalil Rountree is content to simply ignore anything Strickland has to say about him publicly.
“What I took it as was almost like squashing whatever beef,” Rountree said. “Just saying I am who I am, I’m going to say what I’m going to say, but I’m coming here to personally shake your hand and tell you I think you’re a liberal, but to a certain level, I respect you. It was like that. I took it as you’re coming here to make the peace and I kind of left it at that.
“Now anything moving forward, anything that’s said or whatever, I got that stored in my memory bank. So I know that there’s really no issue. It’s really just talk and I won’t concern myself with it.”
‘The War Horse’ Responds to Pereira’s No-Takedown Charity Challenge
Shifting gears back to his upcoming title clash, much has been asked about Khalil Rountree’s game plan against Pereira—specifically whether or not he would try and take the ‘Brazilian Boogeyman’ down to the mat. Pereira even came out and issued a challenge suggesting that if Rountree does shoot for a takedown at any point in the fight, he will agree to donate a portion of his purse to charity.
Addressing that challenge, Rountree made it clear that he’s happy to donate a portion of his winning regardless of a takedown attempt or not. As far as whether he’ll actually shoot or not during the fight, Rountree is going to make that a game-time decision.
“I would rather just rather publicly promise to donate a portion of my winnings to charity regardless of a takedown,” Rountree said. “I’m not a betting guy. I don’t bet. I don’t support it, but if it’s like a challenge to show that I will donate, I don’t need to say that I won’t shoot for a takedown. I’ll just [donate] flat off if that’s what he’s asking me to do.
“Am I going to shoot for a takedown? I don’t plan to. I’ve said this multiple times. It’s not in my plans, but if it happens, it happens. It is MMA. Guy hits me with something and I’m like, I have to save myself, okay cool. But my game plan is not to go in there and become a D-1 wrestler. Everyone who watches me knows [that]. My whole career everyone has known me for my striking. Don’t expect anything different just because it’s a title fight and just because I’m going against Alex who’s also a striker.
“Don’t expect anything different. Expect me. Expect who you’ve always seen. Now, if something happens and I get damaged and there’s no choice, but to shoot a takedown, maybe that happens, but my game plan and who I am hasn’t changed.”
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