Khalil Rountree broke into tears as he was making his way back to the showers after his fight Saturday at Apex in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 83 in Las Vegas.
They were tears of joys, though, after he'd scored the biggest win of his career when he violently knocked out Anthony Smith in the third round of their light heavyweight bout.
"I guess I was just overwhelmed with joy, yeah, and it came out in tears, surprisingly" Rountree said. "But yeah, I feel really good."
He has reason to, as he's becoming one of the division's can't miss fighters. In his five-bout winning streak, he's scored four brutal finishes, though none was as significant as the win over Smith.
Rountree was on point in the first two rounds and won them both on all three judges' cards, but that was a prelude to the dramatic finish in the third. Rountree landed an uppercut and a blistering left hook that caused Smith to stagger back several steps and fall. Rountree followed him and was prepared to go to the ground to finish him if need be, but he stood over the prone Smith while holding his right hand in the air.
He would have been within his rights to use it because he'd likely have gotten there before the referee, but he showed class and restraint and saved Smith from a potentially seriously bad outcome.
Rountree said he expected Smith to try harder to take him down, which in retrospect would have been the move to move.
"He just chose to stay in the pocket and trade out, so yeah," Rountree said.
In the main event, Song Yadong suffocated Chris Gutierrez in their five-round bantamweight fight and won by scores of 50-45 twice and 50-44. He called out Petr Yan, but Yan didn't seem all that interested.
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— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) December 10, 2023