JRE MMA Show #64 with Khalil Rountree Jr.

And boom. (fists thudding) What's up, man? How are you?

Good, man.

Thanks for doing this.

Thank you for having me on.

I was so impressed with, uh, your performance from that... past UFC that I had to, I had to talk to you.

Yeah.

I was like, that was a- I've seen guys make, like, you were always a very dangerous striker, from obviously, from the Gokhan Saki fight. Every guy- everybody got to see that.

Mm-hmm.

But to see how fluid you were against a beast like Eryk Anders. I mean, Eryk Anders is a scary cat.

Yeah.

He's d- he's coming for blood, right? And you were so fast, man. It was crazy to watch. It was really interesting.

Thank you.

Like, what b- If you had to give yourself a percentage leap that you've gone up over the last year, what do you think it would be?

Compared to like...

Well, who you were before that.

Not that high of a leap. I mean-

Not that high of a leap.

Like, that performance for me was like, I feel good about it, but that was only four months. So I'm like, I know that there's so much more for me to gain.

Right.

That's why I'm like, yeah, I gotta go back. So the leap not, not too much because I know there's still a lot more to go.

Mm-hmm.

A lot more. Yeah.

Wow. So you've decided... So for people who don't understand what we're talking about, you went to Thailand.

Mm-hmm.

You spent four months down in Thailand. And, um, you, you, dude you f- were fighting like a Thai boxer.

(laughs)

It was crazy, like, Mark Dellograte, who, uh, works in the production truck-

Yeah.

He's the guy who picks out the instant replays. He and I talk back and forth sometimes while the fight's going on.

Mm-hmm.

And Mark, Mark, you know, with his heavy Boston accent, like, "Dude, classic Thai."

(laughs)

"He's classic Thai stance."

He was just so light on that front leg, dude.

(laughs)

Wow!

Dude, that inside leg kick was so ferocious.

Yeah.

It was fun to watch, man.

So, it's just... Usually, wherever I go, um, I've always been good at just, like, kind of absorbing the culture. I'm a guy, like, I can go into a room full of people, and I can just kind of pick up what the energy is like. And that's another reason why I wanted to go to Thailand. So, just the way that they train, and the discipline, the power, but the relaxation. Like, everything I was learning, just like, man, there's so much more to Muay Thai.

Hmm.

So I would just, even the days that I didn't train, I'd just sit around and just watch these guys because Muay Thai is more than just punching, kicking, elbows. I mean, there's balance, you know what I mean? There's, there's repetition. Like, how many kicks are you throwing? You know, the guys at the stadiums, they're like, they're kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.