The
Ultimate Fighting Championship is building up its card for
International Fight Week one large brick at a time.
The organization announced
on Friday the addition of a major light heavyweight collision on
UFC 303. Former champ Jamahal
Hill (12-2, 1 NC) will look to get back in the win column
against the surging Khalil
Rountree (13-5, 1 NC), with the latter riding a career-long win
streak. The two will do battle on June 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in
Las Vegas, and they will likely be seated on the main card.
Hill vied for his old belt—one he vacated due to injury, and not
because he suffered a loss—against Alex
Pereira in the UFC 300 headliner, and he came out on the wrong
end of a first-round knockout. That defeat put an end to a
four-fight win streak that culminated with him capturing the vacant
205-pound throne against Glover
Teixeira in a one-sided five-round effort. On his way up, the
Dana White’s Contender Series graduate wrecked
Jimmy
Crute, Johnny
Walker and Thiago
Santos all with strikes.
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 23 finalist Rountree has won five
straight, which stands as his lengthiest since turning pro in 2014.
Rountree struggled to gain traction early on his UFC tenure,
recording impressive knockouts but getting his momentum blunted by
an artificially enhanced Michal Oleksiecjzuk and a powerful Walker.
Following a deflating 2021 decision defeat to Marcin
Prachnio, Rountree has recorded four finishes in his last five
outings, including beatdowns of Anthony
Smith and Chris
Daukaus to stamp himself a contender at 205 pounds.
UFC 303 goes down on June 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas,
with the headliner the long-awaited welterweight encounter between
Conor
McGregor and Michael
Chandler. Additional featured matchups on the billing include a
strawweight pairing of Michelle
Waterson-Gomez vs. Gillian
Robertson, and a likely featherweight brawl between Cub Swanson
and Andre
Fili.