UFC 236: Holloway vs. Poirier 2 - Predictions and Picks

#3 Eryk Anders vs. Khalil Rountree

Eryk Anders will be looking for a knockout when he faces Khalil Rountree

Third from the top, we’ve got a fight at 205lbs between a pair of very heavy hitters. Anders – a natural 185lber – moved up to 205lbs for the first time in 2018 but struggled against Thiago Santos, largely due to a lack of stamina more than anything else, probably due to taking the fight on such late notice.

He then moved back to 185lbs and came up short against the underrated Elias Theodorou before moving back to 205lbs for this fight.

Rountree meanwhile is one of the best ‘glass cannons’ in the 205lbs division. An insanely heavy hitter, we saw him turn off the lights on noted K-1 veteran Gokhan Saki last year with a single punch, but in his next fight he was taken out in less than a minute by the vicious elbows of Johnny Walker.

Throw in a horribly porous ground game, and you’ve got a fighter who’s both unbelievably dangerous, but highly beatable too. If nothing else, he always guarantees excitement.

For me, this should come down to whether Anders can take a big shot from Rountree and survive. If he can do that, then I think this could be his fight. In my opinion, he’s a better natural athlete than Rountree, and while his ground game is still rudimentary, his takedowns are decent enough and there’s every chance he could muscle Rountree to the ground and beat him up or even submit him there.

The issue for him though comes in the fact that he’s the naturally smaller man and with that, he’s also at a reach disadvantage. That might not bode well given he struggled massively with the range of Tim Williams – more known as a grappler than a striker – when they fought last summer, and while he did eventually knock Williams out, obviously Williams doesn’t hit anywhere near as hard as Rountree.

I see this fight as a bit of a toss-up. Rountree could definitely take out Anders early on; Anders has an excellent chin but I’d argue Rountree hits even harder than Thiago Santos, and he’s got the kind of power that could take out anyone in the division.

However, Anders also hits very hard, and if he can get inside ‘The War Horse’ then I think he can either land something nasty, or muscle him to the ground and finish things off there.

I’m leaning towards Anders I think as I just can’t trust Rountree against someone who isn’t notably slower and more plodding than he is.

Anders isn’t a super-quick fighter by any measure but he’s an explosive athlete with the ability to get inside, and I just don’t trust that Rountree can survive a barrage from him.

The Pick: Anders via second-round TKO