Khalil Rountree Details How MMA Pulled Him Off Self-Destructive Path

Khalil
Rountree was in a dark place in life before starting MMA.

Rountree challenges Alex
Pereira for the light heavyweight title in the main event at
UFC
307 on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“The War Horse” recently detailed how the sport helped him out from
difficult spot in life years ago.

Rountree was just 2 years old when he lost his father, who once
worked as a bodyguard for Muhammad
Ali. Without the presence of someone to assure him about life,
Rountree feels he wasn’t strong enough to face some challenges.

“When I was 2 years old, my father was murdered,” Rountree said on
the UFC 307 Countdown show. “He was a manager for
Boyz II Men, New Edition. There was a time in his career where he
was a personal bodyguard for Muhammad Ali. At his funeral I
remember there being hundreds and thousands of people… I think the
biggest thing was that I didn’t the courage to face certain
challenges because I didn’t have anyone that stood there and let me
know everything would be OK.”

Rountree eventually took to excessive drinking, smoking and even
consuming random prescription pills that made him very unhealthy.
Weighing over 300 pounds, Rountree was trying to sleep one night
when his heart starting behaving abnormally to the point where he
thought he would die. That’s when the future UFC light heavyweight
title challenger decided to get into fitness, and MMA was a perfect
match.

“That led me down a path of self destruction,” Rountree said. “I
was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. I was drinking alcohol
non-stop. I was taking random prescription pills. Just trying to
numb all of my pain. I remember stepping on the scale and it said
305 pounds. There was a night where I trying to fall asleep, and I
just felt my heart doing really really weird things that it
shouldn’t have been doing. And there was a moment where I thought,
‘OK, this is the night. Like, I’m gonna die in my sleep.’ And that
was when I started to think about, ‘OK, what can I do to hold on to
my life?’ And that’s what drove me to start being more open minded
to things that involved fitness and health. And MMA was perfect for
me.”