Khalil Rountree Jr.

“I was never in any competitive sports growing up.”

“At the beginning of my career, when I first got signed to the UFC, I dealt with a little of struggles. I didn't know if I belonged in the UFC.”

“The way I got into fighting was that my brother was training in MMA, and he'd been wanting to introduce me to his new hobby, so I joined the gym with him because, at the time, I was 300 pounds.”

“I'm putting in the work every day and I'm prepared for anything.”

“I had to appreciate and love the soft-spoken side of me to also love and appreciate the very violent side of me, so its like the yin and yang - the balance of life.”

“More of my friends were the kids in school that, like, skateboarded, or we'd just, like, play guitar in the garage. And we were kind of more of like - you know, like the outcast kids in a way. And those were the people who I connected to mostly because we just had this, you know, this, like, inner stuff that we didn't really want to let out.”

“About 19 is when everything started to hit me. People were going to college, some people were getting jobs, and I was living in a one-bedroom apartment with my mom, my brother, my niece, my sister, struggling to make $750 rent every month.”

“I want to make a difference in the world. It's something I'm passionate about.”

“I used to travel around with bands and sell their merchandise on tour. I wasn't really chasing my dream. I was just trying to help someone chase their own. I always thought I had more in me than just selling clothes and packing the van.”