In the lead-up to the biggest fight of his career thus far, Khalil Rountree Jr has implored that he will not shoot for a takedown against Alex Pereira in the UFC 307 main event and will stand and strike with him.
With wrestling defense being Alex Pereira‘s clearest weakness, there are several fighters near the top of the UFC light heavyweight division who believe they could beat the Brazilian champion because of that exact reason.
Despite that, Khalil Rountree Jr has vowed to stick to his striking roots when he takes on ‘Poatan’ on October 5th, stating that the fans will be the beneficiaries of a technical standup affair.
Khalil Rountree Jr’s head coach believes Alex Pereira will ‘break game’ at UFC 307
Although ‘The War Horse’ has stated that he won’t be implementing any wrestling offense, the Brazilian champion could well come out with a wrestling offense, no matter how out of character that would be.
The 37-year-old has clearly been working on that side of his game over the past few months and has even been consistently training with former middleweight champion, Sean Strickland.
Khalil Rountree Jr’s Syndicate MMA head coach, John Wood believes that despite all the questions surrounding his fighter and whether he’ll implement a wrestling gameplan, Pereira will ‘break game’ himself.
“In a nutshell, yes (it’s a striking match), I believe honestly in my gut, I think Pereira shoots on Khalil, I think he’s the one that breaks game first and shoots on Khalil to try and get that takedown,” Wood told ESPN MMA.
“That’s actually something he has done, I mean, we ain’t shooting over here I can tell you that, Khalil can, it’s not like we don’t train MMA or wrestling… I think Alex shoots first but yes, I would be shocked if this fight goes five rounds, someone is going out on their shield, it’s gonna happen,” Wood continued.
Alex Pereira bumps into a Moose while training in Utah
Now just two weeks out from his next title defense, Alex Pereira has landed in Utah to acclimate to the altitude.
Historically, UFC fights that have taken place in the ‘Crossroads of the West’ have showcased that the altitude extremely affects the fighters, with UFC 278 in 2022 being a prime example of that.
Arguably, two weeks isn’t enough time to properly acclimate to the surroundings, but ‘Poatan’ is doing everything possible to make sure that he goes into the main event in prime shape.
During an evening run in the mountains of Utah, the light heavyweight champion came face to face with a Moose.
In typical Pereira fashion, his reaction to bumping into the wild beast was ‘Chama’.