Former light heavyweight title challenger Khalil Rountree Jr. has been helping middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev prepare for his UFC 328 title fight against Sean Strickland, and that has given him a bird’s eye view of the champ’s work ethic.
With Chimaev bringing an entire team with him to train stateside, Rountree told Cageside Press and other media outlets on Thursday that “I’ve never seen such a well-put together group. Very organized, very structured, very hard-working.”
“I got to see Khamzat as a leader. He’s not just responsible for himself, but he makes sure the team is taken care of and everybody gets the same type of training and recovery as he does. So that’s very cool.”
Rountree, a dangerous striker in the 205lb weight class, had high praise for the middleweight champ. “There’s no doubt about it in my mind, he’s one of the best on the planet.”
Of course, Chimaev has been teasing an eventual move to light heavyweight himself. That has Routree feeling “many different ways,” he admitted. “When I first heard the news, I was a bit bummed out really. Just to know that a guy like Khamzat would come to the division, and that could be a potential match-up if that happened, it doesn’t make me happy to be think about that.”
Part of that is Rountree’s belief that Chimaev is one of the best in the world. Beyond that, “no one gets an easy round with Khamzat. It doesn’t matter what weight class, what size,” he added. “So that was my initial thoughts of like, if he made the move up, we’re all kind of screwed.”
It’s not a matter of cleaning out the division, Rountree later clarified. The top of the division is simply full of winnable fights for the middleweight star.
“Being able to clean something out, yeah it takes a lot of work. But I think if he were to be placed in the top five right now, there’s not an easy fight for any of us up there if it were Khamzat Chimaev. Like when it comes to all of us being heavy in striking primarily in the top five, then he’s going to find a way around it. And then if we just try to up our wrestling to match with him, we’ll get outmatched.”
“It’s not a clear sweep for him, but it’s not an easy challenge for the guys of the top five if he chose to go up there,” Rountree finished.
Watch Thursday’s full media scrum with Khalil Rountree Jr. above.
