When rare praise from Conor McGregor on "under-utilized legal strike" got Khalil Rountree Jr. smiling ear-to-ear
Conor McGregor once applauded Khalil Rountree Jr. for executing an uncommon strike on his opponent. 'The War Horse' secured a dominant TKO victory over Karl Roberson during their light heavyweight clash at UFC Vegas 50 in March 2022.
The bout came to a decisive end in the second round when Rountree landed a brutal soccer-style body kick on a downed Roberson, who was attempting to get back to his feet. He followed up with a few more punishing blows to secure the victory.
Impressed by the seldom-seen kick, 'The Notorious' took to Twitter (now X) and heaped praise on Rountree Jr. for employing such an effective strike:
"A lovely timed soccer kick to the body of a downed opponent. A much under-utilized legal strike. Nice to see some fresh innovation again in there instead of the usual garbage we see over and over."
During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani a few days later, Rountree Jr. responded to McGregor’s glowing remarks. The 34-year-old Californian shared that he’s a huge fan of the former two-division UFC champion, and receiving such recognition from McGregor meant a great deal to him:
"It means the world [to me]. Conor McGregor is one of my favorite fighters, absolutely. And so, to see that last night, that put a smile on my face from ear-to-ear. That was so cool. Conor McGregor pretty much gave me props and said that I did something that wasn’t boring; that’s cool. I didn’t even know that he was watching."
Check out Khalil Rountree Jr.'s comments below (52:18):
'The War Horse' is slated to challenge reigning 205-pound champion Alex Pereira in the headliner of UFC 307, scheduled for Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Rountree Jr. is currently riding the momentum of a five-fight win streak, with his most recent victory being a third-round knockout of Anthony Smith last December.
When Khalil Rountree Jr. credited Conor McGregor for inspiring his striking precision
In the same interview with Ariel Helwani, Khalil Rountree Jr. was asked whether the soccer kick he delivered to Karl Roberson was something he had practiced or if it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
'The War Horse' revealed that the move came from his focus on precision striking, a discipline he was motivated to adopt by Conor McGregor:
"Well, one of the things that I actually learned from Conor was precision. He spoke about precision multiple times, and so it's not something that I practiced, but I do practice precision. So, I saw the exact spot that I wanted to kick, and that's what I aimed for, and yeah, it landed as close to the spot." [53:15]