Chris Daukaus made his long awaited debut at light heavyweight on Saturday at UFC Vegas 78, paired up with the hard-hitting Khalil Rountree Jr.
The fight had originally been slated for UFC 289 back in June, but was postponed due to an injury on the part of Daukaus.
Rountree had been looking for ranked light heavyweights to face, but with none seemingly raring to face a heavy-hitting striker, he took the fight with the incoming Daukaus who is ranked at heavyweight, but is making his move to 205.
For Rountree it’s a fight that hopefully gets him a top 10 light heavyweight next, and for Daukaus it’s a chance to save his spot on the roster.
Round 1 Daukaus came out with a nice combo which Rountree answered with standing hammers to the hands. Daukaus clearly planned to come out starting quick against Rountree. Rountree stuck to feeling Daukaus out, but his opponent was very much coming in with combinations against the striker.
Daukaus did try to shoot one time, but Rountree was able to stuff the takedown and put Daukaus on the fence before landing a knee on the break.
Daukaus was clearly getting very comfortable with the pacing until Rountree landed a massive straight left that didn’t even land clean and put Daukaus down and forced Herb Dean to call the fight.
Official Result: Khalil Rountree Jr. def. Chris Daukaus via R1 TKO 2:40
