Media Khalil Rountree retires, moving to Muay Thai/ Kickboxing Competitions?

[IrritatedTomcat]

If you go to threads the day it was announced, I called this haha


I need to start making threads and not just troll and debate people.

 

[SKYNET]

...Plus he got to bang Veronica during this whole time which is reason enough to start MMA.

 

[WhuffieCollector]

Good dude, but way too slow to be a true contender.

Tough guy, hits hard, but overall skills were lacking for the UFC level of competition.

 

[Lovelyboy]

Thought he said his next fight would be his last.

Its his fault for thinking muay thai alone would win him fights.

 

[PhilLeotardo]

The guy that got outclassed by Oleksiejczuk?

 

[The XL]

That's a shame because he has so much upside. The way he dramatically improved his striking so quickly was wild. If he had developed good TDD he would have been a problem in that division.

 

[tramendous]

As always, I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

In a weird way, he reminds me of myself - practiced almost exclusively striking, I was very late to the game when it came to wrestling and BJJ. And as TS mentioned, the MMA world will pass you up in a hurry. There are teenagers with legit grappling skills. At least he has a backup plan and his young.

Plus he got to bang Veronica during this whole time which is reason enough to start MMA.

i mean get it that grappling is important but its not like guys like Adesanya or Conor Mcgregor is some grappling ace.

 

[Goldentrophy]

why, no shame losing to that moldavian guy. Khalil looked like a killer prior to that. If he just wants to improve his grapole and jiu a little bit, he could be insane. Retiring from ufc to keep getting hit for even less money looks like l stupid plan

We are assuming he's retiring to do Muay Thai which may not be the case at all.

 

[ImmigrantMentality]

Muay Thai at higher weight classes is very shallow and he could probably do very well as a result but won't make much money. Kickboxing is less shallow but he's still not gonna get a title and will get knocked out in the process just the same. If he can't handle losing mentally maybe he should just do something else and train on the side. He has a pretty good physique and lost a lot of weight. If he gets on roids he could probably get a really big social media following and "inspire" some people

 

[The_Renaissance]

Cool guy and exciting, but definitely better suited to muay thai or similar. Zero ground game. Hopefully he goes out with a bang because I can't stomach Alvey anymore!

 

[JustBleed69]

i mean get it that grappling is important but its not like guys like Adesanya or Conor Mcgregor is some grappling ace.

They aren't, however both of them have far superior takedown defense and a better ability to get up from the ground.

 

[JustBleed69]

That's a shame because he has so much upside. The way he dramatically improved his striking so quickly was wild. If he had developed good TDD he would have been a problem in that division.

Cool guy and exciting, but definitely better suited to muay thai or similar. Zero ground game. Hopefully he goes out with a bang because I can't stomach Alvey anymore!

It's so strange, he dedicated all this time to Muay Thai and wanted to "bring Muay Thai to MMA" when striking was never a huge hole in his game. He just seemed like he had no interest in improving his grappling. Kind of hard to feel bad for him tbh

 

[JustBleed69]

Muay Thai at higher weight classes is very shallow and he could probably do very well as a result but won't make much money. Kickboxing is less shallow but he's still not gonna get a title and will get knocked out in the process just the same. If he can't handle losing mentally maybe he should just do something else and train on the side. He has a pretty good physique and lost a lot of weight. If he gets on roids he could probably get a really big social media following and "inspire" some people

I know it's different, but idk he did KO Saki pretty easily.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

It's so crazy how kickboxing doesn't carry over that well to MMA in most cases. I wonder how much that has to do with the cage size and glove size differences.

Saki's style isn't good for MMA. he's a swarmer and in MMA those guys can get taken down or punched easily because they stay in the pocket to unleash combinations. for that style to work you need good TDD and a chin. Max Holloway, Colby Covington, Nick Diaz, Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier. all of these guys have a swarming type of pressure attack which is similar to how Saki likes to fight, come forward and throw lots of strikes. the difference is, all of those guys either have a strong grappling background to mix in with their strikes and/or an epic chin.

when you look at other crossover talent that has done well. Overeem, Hunt, Mirko. they all have drastically different striking styles once they transferred over to MMA. much less about a variety of strikes and more about distance and forcing the opponent to either over react to feints and/or get sick of being potshotted from the outside and walk them into a strike. you have to have a high level of understanding of distance to be a really good MMA striker.

 

[ImmigrantMentality]

I know it's different, but idk he did KO Saki pretty easily.

Saki isn't anywhere close to champ level in kickboxing anymore either and with 10oz gloves he doesn't just get knocked out in the first round by Khalil like that. The guy fought way more accomplished strikers throughout his career and never had that happen to him