Khalil Rountree: Ex-UFC champ Sean Strickland apologized for being a ‘dumbass’ when he began beef

SALT LAKE CITY – It seems the meat between Khalil Rountree and Sean Strickland is over – not less than from Rountree’s facet.

Rountree (14-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) challenges gentle heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 307 (pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+) headliner at Delta Middle in Salt Lake Metropolis.

Strickland is in Salt Lake Metropolis to assist Pereira prep for Rountree, whom he’s by no means been keen on. His situation with him began in 2022 when he went off on Rountree for crying throughout one in every of his post-fight scrums. Rountree downplayed his feedback, claiming he didn’t know who Strickland was.

Rountree says Strickland approached him a few months in the past to apologize, however that didn’t cease the previous UFC middleweight champion from recently going off on Rountree again, calling him a “liberal c*ck beta male,” in addition to accusing him of being in a cult.

“Truthfully, the final interplay that I had with Sean Strickland was on the UFC PI. It was actually the day after Dan Ige stepped in for that battle on like three hours, 4 hours’ discover, or one thing like that,” Rountree informed MMA Junkie and different reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “Out of the blue, Sean Strickland got here as much as me. He approached me, and he simply stated, like, ‘Khalil, I apologize. I’m a dumbass. I truly sort of such as you. I feel you’re liberal, however total, I such as you’ or ‘I respect you,’ one thing alongside these strains.

“So what I took it as is, nearly like squashing no matter beef, or simply saying, like, ‘Look dude, I’m who I’m. I’m going to say what I’m going to say, however I’m coming right here to personally shake your hand, let you know I feel you’re a liberal to a sure stage, I respect you.’ It was like that. So I took it as like, OK, you’re coming right here to sort of make the peace. I left it at that. So now, something shifting ahead, something that’s stated, I’ve bought that in my reminiscence financial institution, so I do know that there’s actually no situation. It’s actually simply discuss, and I received’t concern myself with it.”

Strickland is predicted to get his desired title-fight rematch with UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, who edged him out by break up choice of their first battle in January,

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 307.