“I’m A Dumb*ss” Before UFC 307 Title Match

However, Rountree claims that Strickland actually apologized to him during a chance encounter in Las Vegas.

“Honestly, the last interaction that I had with Sean Strickland was at the UFC [Performance Institute], it was literally the day after Dan Ige stepped in that fight [on] like three hours, four hours’ notice or something like that,” Rountree said during UFC 307 media day. “I was going into the P.I., I saw Dan Ige, walked right up to him, gave him his props for having balls of steel just going in there on such short notice.

“Out of the blue, Sean Strickland comes up to me. He approached me and just said ‘Khalil, I apologize, I’m a dumb ass, I actually kind of like you. I think you’re a liberal but overall, I like you or respect you.’ Something along those lines” (h/t MMA Fighting).

Khalil Rountree is Ready to put his past with Sean Strickland behind him

Knowing Strickland was sorry for the unkind words he’s said in the past, Rountree is not terribly worried about what the outspoken star might say in the future. If anything, ‘The War Horse’ is just happy to put the whole ordeal behind him.

“What I took it as was almost like squashing whatever beef,” Rountree said. “Just saying I am who I am, I’m going to say what I’m going to say, but I’m coming here to personally shake your hand and tell you I think you’re a liberal, but to a certain level, I respect you. It was like that. I took it as you’re coming here to make the peace and I kind of left it at that.

“Now anything moving forward, anything that’s said or whatever, I got that stored in my memory bank. So I know that there’s really no issue. It’s really just talk and I won’t concern myself with it.”