Khalil Rountree suffered serious injury ahead of UFC Baku win, could barely ‘walk and even stand’

Khalil Rountree picked up one of the biggest wins of his career in the main event of last Saturday’s UFC Baku card. Apparently, he did so with a serious injury.

Rountree, a former light heavyweight title challenger, was back in action against former champion Jamahal Hill. He ended up dominating his fellow American over five rounds.

And he did it with a torn meniscus, which he suffered just weeks before the event.

Khalil Rountree entered UFC Baku fight with torn meniscus.

“About halfway through training camp, when I was training jiu-jitsu, was the first time I felt some discomfort in my knee, just training with bigger guys and doing four sessions per day on top of like running and jiu-jitsu and pads — that’s when I first started feeling the discomfort,” Rountree said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Mania). “It only grew from there until one day I woke up and it was just really hard for me to walk and even stand. I got it checked out and ended up having a torn meniscus. Once I found out what the injury was, it was only about three weeks from actual fight day. So it was obviously stressful.

“Initially I was devastated and not able to train how I really wanted to but it’s kind of a blessing in disguise because I came into the cage really fresh because I haven’t been able to spar in three weeks,” Rountree added. “The last three weeks had just been recovery on top of getting sick during fight week. Had I not had such a positive, supportive group of coaches I don’t think I would have gotten this far and done it on my own. I think I would have crumbled. So, it all paid off.”

It remains to be see who Rountree fights next. However, his injury against Hill makes his victory all the more impressive.