Khalil Rountree Jr. was ready to fight through the pain. Head coach, John Wood, wasn’t about to let him.
With a big opportunity against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC Abu Dhabi carrying title implications, Wood made the difficult decision to pull his fighter from the main event, believing the risk of competing with a significant injury far outweighed the reward.
Now the wait for Rountree Jr’s return from injury begins.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that serious fortunately,” Wood told Home of Fight.
“We kind of, I think, escaped any kind of surgical stuff. For sure it was a hinderance in camp to where it go to a point where it couldn’t really do much. In a fight that big, man, those are the decisions that…it sucks.”
If it had been up to Rountree Jr., he would’ve made the walk anyway. Wood knew the stakes were simply too high, believing this wasn’t the kind of fight where you gamble with your health when a title shot could be waiting on the other side.
“He really didn’t actually even want to (withdraw). He was going to do it. He was full-on and had the conversations like, I’m just going to bite down and go. I kind of made the decision of like no dude, this is too big of an opportunity. Too big of a situation,” he said.
“You’re fighting the #1 contender. You might as well be fighting almost for a title at that point in time.”
For Wood, this wasn’t about questioning his fighter’s toughness, but about protecting his future. After sitting down together and talking through the injury, the veteran coach knew this wasn’t one of those times where you simply tape it up and walk to the cage.
“Everybody fights injured, but there’s injuries and things that are just going to where it’s like when you know, okay, if I don’t get this done in a round or two rounds, I’m in trouble. It’s just not smart,” Wood said.
“We sat down, had a talk, he was devastated. It’s the first time he’s ever pulled out of a fight. It’s the first time I’ve ever had to say hey dude, I just don’t think this is the go.”
Ankalaev went on to win the bout against Bogdan Guskov via TKO in the fifth round.
