Sean Strickland has blasted Khalil Rountree for his post-fight comments at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 50 event.
Khalil Rountree (11-5 MMA) defeated Karl Roberson (9-5 MMA) in the light heavyweight fight this past Saturday, March 12th at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, Nevada.
At the post-fight news conference, Rountree had a lot to say, a heartfelt message, commenting:
“We hear about certain fights’ stories and it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s cool. Well, on to the next, or talk about the fight, No, man. We’re still people. Yes, I come in here and I put on performances, and people know me as fighting, but it’s like that whole part of – man, when I (was) like 300 pounds without a hope or a dream or a dollar in my pocket, stepped into an MMA gym to try to change my life.”
“Every time I’m in here, that’s still a growth. It’s not like I’ve just surpassed that person. Every single day I have to wake up to that person. Every single day I have to fight that person. Just because I’m in the UFC, just because I fight, doesn’t mean that person is long gone, you know? I still have demons, I still have doubts. …Yeah, I have f*ckin’ doubts. Everybody does. When you’re doing something good in life, when you’re doing something that’s trying to surpass everything else and do something that’s meaningful, f*ck yeah you’re gonna have doubts.”
Continuing Rountree said (much to the apparent disappointment of Sean Strickland):
“I’m still the guy, although I’ve grown and I’m taking on more challenges and I’m growing as a man, it’s like my fight is different than everybody else,” Rountree said. “Everybody else has their own fight. For me, part of that is how do you get a man off of the couch, from killing himself with eating trashy food, and smoking cigarettes, and watching porn, and doing all this toxic sh*t to be an all-star athlete? The switch just doesn’t flip like that. It’s a constant progression and I think that there’s millions of people out there that kind of need help in those steps of like, ‘Hey, guide me here.’ Yeah, I’m cheering for you, but how do I do it? What’s next?”
“If I’m not winning fights, one, I make half of my money, and two, nobody gives a sh*t,” Rountree said. “… The person who loses the fight kind of gets forgotten about. You don’t get an interview, you don’t get this, you don’t get that – only the winners get to say a piece.”
“It might sound a bit cliche, or you’ve heard this before, but your life matters,” Rountree said, shedding tears. “You can be special. You can be strong. You can be seen. You can be heard. Life is beautiful if you make it that way. It doesn’t have to be how everybody else makes it seem. Stick around. Stick around another day.”
Well, Sean Strickland (25-3 MMA) was not impressed by the emotional outpouring, taking to Twitter to share a portion of Rountree’s post fight press conference, commenting:
“Gayest shit I’ve ever seen and I love bi women so ive seen a lot of gay… Yeah you’re really special, a special little snow flake… This man is the definition of a PC BETA male. You all would hate him….. seriously being in the same room as him makes me cringe.”
Strickland followed up that statement with the following video:
You guys have no concept of who this man is…. He sucks soo much.. If you ever hung out with him for more than 60 seconds you would hate him… God he sucks pic.twitter.com/j1ALx7ySmT
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) March 14, 2022
No, Sean Strickland didn’t mince words in what he took from ‘The War Horse’s’ outpouring of inspiration.
Do you agree with Sean Strickland or were you impressed by Rountree’s emotional speech? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!