Anthony Smith vs Khalil Rountree Jr. Prediction: One Shouldn't Neglect Lionheart

The UFC tournament will be held on the night of December 10th in Las Vegas (USA). In the co-main event, famous Anthony "Lionheart" Smith and Khalil Rountree Jr will meet. The fight will take place in the welterweight category. Smith is ranked eighth in the UFC's welterweight division, while Rountree is eleventh. Also, Smith comes out of the fight, replacing Azamat Murzakanov, who fell ill with pneumonia.

Anthony Smith is one of the most recognizable fighters in the entire UFC. He is a man who shows up no matter what and a former title challenger (he fell short against Jon Jones in 2019). Smith's last three bouts have been challenging for him. He lost, as expected, to Magomed Ankalaev and, more unexpectedly, to Johnny Walker, and he beat Ryan Spann by a split decision.

Khalil Rountree is incredible at the knockouts and has eight of his twelve wins coming this way. At the same time, he has no victories by submission, but he does have one loss (though he failed by submission a long time ago, in 2016). Now Khalil is on a good run with four wins in a row, having knocked out his opponents three times.

They wanted me to fight him in Austin, but there were like six days or something like that. It was really short notice. I said I would take the fight but I couldn’t make 205 that fast. So I asked for a catchweight. Everyone was good with the catchweight, but Dana isn’t a huge fan of catchweights. So he asked if I would make 205 this weekend, so he gave me an extra weekend to make the weight class. I said yeah. The UFC understands how tough of a position I put myself in and how hard it is to come in on short notice and beat a guy like Khalil. And it’s even harder to look good doing it. So if you come in and you put yourself in these precarious positions and do hard things, I think you get rewarded for that.

Anthony Smith

The bookmakers have Khalil Rountree as the favorite here, and the main reason for that is the short notice. The bookies may be right, and the bout won't last long, but we'll back a different horse. Smith will lose in conditioning, but there will definitely be no third round and probably no second. His longer arms will allow Anthony to fight back in the standing, and the vast experience will let him get a takedown. His advantage in the ring will be undeniable.