After his big win at UFC Baku, what’s next for Khalil Rountree?

This past Saturday in the main event of UFC Baku, we saw a big time matchup in the light heavyweight division. Former title challenger Khalil Rountree (14-6, 1 NC) was looking to get back on track as he took on former world champion Jamahal Hill (12-4, 1 NC) who was looking to avoid a third straight loss.

Entering this fight, I thought that Rountree had a big advantage. While Hill was taller and a little longer, I thought that Rountree had a huge technical advantage when it came to the striking. In addition to having the technical advantage, I figured he’d be much faster and cleaner with his technique which would allow him to stay ahead of Hill throughout the fight.

That’s exactly what happened at UFC Baku. Hill really struggled to land anything significant throughout the five rounds and Rountree just picked him apart. Hill was dropped a couple of times by Rountree and he was frustrated after the fight that Rountree didn’t engage in more wild exchanges with him. Instead, Rountree was incredibly technical throughout and won a very lopsided decision.

What’s next after UFC Baku?

Right now, the title picture at 205 is centered around six fighters with Rountree being one of them. I think it’s obvious that the UFC is going to run it back with Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira. Pereira deserves an immediate rematch after the run he went on and the fact that he stepped up every time that the UFC needed him to.

With that, there are four contenders that need to be matched up. Those contenders are Jiri Prochazka, Carlos Ulberg, Khalil Rountree, and Dominick Reyes. If I’m playing matchmaker, I’d love to see Prochazka and Rountree face next while Ulberg and Reyes could fight each other.

They were originally scheduled to fight before so it makes sense just to rebook that matchup. However, Rountree against any of those three wouldn’t surprise me and it’ll ultimately come down to fighter availability and the schedule.