How Khalil Rountree Went From 300lbs to Being in the UFC | Joe Rogan

Now how often do you practice? Do you practice this outside of hypnosis? Is there like some things you concentrate on or meditate on? Yeah, so I do my best to just, it's kind of like the weird thing about me is fighting is something that is just kind of happened by accident. But it's caused me to search for so much peace, like inner peace, because of everything that I go through emotionally being a fighter. So going from this, I know Shab told you about it, but going from this kid who was just like super overweight my whole life, never fit in with anybody. I was always just like this introverted, gothic, weird kid that nobody, you know, nobody ever talked to. Never even wanted to fight. I've always been non-confrontational. But somewhere in the journey of becoming a fighter, I was like, ah, this is cool, but I need to find more peace because this is like, it's bringing up way too much, just like just way too much of my anger, kind of like, you know, from everything that I held on to. So practice meditation, a lot of meditation. I read a lot of different, I'll study different religions, whatever, wherever I'm at, all just to find peace, man. How does a non-confrontational guy wind up being an elite cage fighter? Stop and think about what I just said. Yeah. That's a very strange thing to say. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it, but I think that internally there's just a lot of, there's a lot of expression. For me, it is a big expression, man. It's an expression of just my danger, my ferociousness, the part of myself that I've always held back. It's like, I have to hold back. I'm a big guy. If I get angry, I'm afraid I can break something. It's crazy. So fighting for me, when I train after training, I'm super peaceful. After I fight, I feel like I've grown. I feel like this guy's trying to hurt me. All these things, it's just a place where we both agree, like, hey, I'll give you my strength versus your strength or whatever powers that strength is what we meet in the middle. It helps me balance, man. It does. Yeah. Because when I'm not fighting, I'm so relaxed. It's crazy. It makes sense. I think that's something that could aid a lot of men. I think just at least training. I think there's something particularly soothing about hitting a heavy bag. There's something particular, like when you're done, man, you feel so good. When you're done hitting pads, when you're done sparring, you feel so just peaceful. You got it all out. You don't have anything left in you. I think a lot of men carry a lot of extra bullshit. Yeah, man. A lot of extra. Extra for no reason. You got to let it out. You got to let it out. You got to let it out. Yeah. Some guys will build it up in the gym, right? And they're super huge. And it's like, I got to let it out, man. They can't even swing those arms. What are you doing? Yeah, you see less of that now. They're used to it, it seems like. But yeah, it just, it would be nice if, I really think they should teach kids how to fight at a very early age. That'd be cool. I think it's the opposite. It would have the opposite effect. I think people would fight less. I think if you taught kids how to fight, they would just train and spar and they would get it all out of their system there and they'd probably fight a lot less. It's kind of like in our nature, right? Yeah. Everybody is kind of like a curiosity, like, I wonder what it's like. Yeah, the closest they have to it is the wrestling team. You can join the wrestling team and they will teach you a very important part of fighting. But other than that, like they're not going to teach you how to fight. But wrestling is kind of like, now at least it's kind of a loophole. Like they don't teach boxing in high school, but they'll teach you how to wrestle. They're pretty crazy, man. Crazy? And wrestling is getting rougher, it seems like. Oh, fuck yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. Well, some of those high school kids are savages. I remember being a high school kid in a high school wrestling room. It was awful. You know, those kids were trying to kill each other. They were the hardest too. Running with plates over their head and all that stuff. The football team is just lifting weights and running practice. Those guys are doing ridiculous shit. Slaven. Slaven. Everybody's seen that movie, Vision Quest, right? No, I've never seen it. You never saw that. I've never seen it. Dude, it's Matthew Modine. And Matthew Modine plays this badass wrestler and he's going up against this dude who's this other badass wrestler. And he comes to visit the guy while the guy's training. And this dude's got a log on his back and he's walking up stadium stairs. And he says, you think you make the weight? Because Matthew Modine's character's trying to cut weight. He goes, I hope so. He goes, I hope so too. And he keeps walking up the stairs like, forget. When did this come out? A long time ago, man. Back when Madonna was young. Yeah, that's the wrestler. So he's walking up the stadium stairs carrying a fucking log on his back. That dude was a giraffe. That's a movie, man. Every wrestler that I knew when I was in high school, everyone worshipped this movie. What year did this shit come out? It's probably like 85 or something. That's not the cover for it, is it? 85. Bam, I nailed it, son. Is that the cover for it? Yes. Look at that. It doesn't even look like you have anything to do with a wrestler. I definitely would not click that on Netflix thinking that it was a wrestler movie at all. She was hot as a son too. Fun times. It was like the quintessential wrestling movie because he just was dedicated. And then there was this friend who lied about being a Native American. Is that what that is? I'm going to say, what's that vest you've got going on? He just wanted to be different and stand out. But it was a fun movie, man. It's a fun movie. I'll have to get into that for sure. Not a whole lot of movies about wrestling. That's the least glamorous but probably toughest sport for high school kids to get into. Definitely. I stayed away from it, man. You know, I tried out for volleyball in high school. I actually made the team but my grades were terrible. So I never got to play. But I was like a heavy set dude and I tried out and made it. I think it was just kind of like a joke though. I think the coaches were just messing with me and my friends too. When did you get involved in martial arts? When I was 20. So 2010. So really quick. Right after high school, I started traveling. So I used to play in a band. I used to play in mini bands. And I played guitar. I played guitar. I played drums. I played keyboard. A little bit of everything. Every Christmas, my mom would just know, just get me a new instrument. And I'd lock myself in my room and teach myself how to play. And that's just always how music was my first love. Instruments were my first love. So you taught yourself? Yeah. I just put on headphones and I would just match the sounds and then keep restarting the songs over and over again. And then if it were a keyboard song, I'd play it just on the CD player. As it evolved. And for some reason, I can match tunes with whatever instrument it may be. You've always been able to do that? Since kid. Wow. Yeah. No formal training? Nothing. That's crazy. Wow. I've tried to take guitar lessons before, but it didn't work for me. My mom was just wasting her money. I was learning, but it was kind of like school for me. I had a teacher. He told me, okay, this chord and this chord. And I was like, ah, just let me feel it. I got to feel it. You know, like I can hear it. I can. I can feel it. I'll get it. And so I stopped going. How many people do it like that? I'm not sure. I know there's a lot of people that can just kind of play by ear, but so I'll like, I just love instruments. I'll pick anything up and just start playing it and end up teaching myself how to play drums, bass, guitar, keyboard. I played the standup bass in middle school. I've got like a little home production, like beat studio at home, all that stuff. So after high school, I started touring and that's when like I started getting my heaviest. We were eating fast food every single day, three times a day, never drank water, soda only, smoking like a pack and a half of cigarettes a day and just on the road traveling. And then by 19, I got up to 305 pounds, 19 years old. I remember one night laying down to go to bed and I just felt my heart pumping ridiculously. And I was just like, no way. I think I'm going to die. And like, I woke up in a panic and weird thing is I got up and I went outside for maybe like 10 minutes and I smoked another cigarette. And I was just like, this is the problem. I'm coughing up stuff. My heart is going to give out and I'm only 19 years old. So around that same week is when I discovered MMA with my brother, just like watching Ultimate Fighter on TV. And so I went on my last tour and I told the guys like, hey, I'm going to go train MMA. They're like, oh, you're going to be a fighter? Like you think, you know, and I was just like, I don't know what I'm going to be, but I'm going to go train and get healthy. And they're like, okay, cool. We'll see you in a couple of months. You know what I mean? Like no one really believed that I was going to go and actually train and fight. I told you guys, well, he's been like, this is big quiet, non-confrontational guy. So yeah, I went and took my first class Muay Thai and March 1st, 2010, took my first Muay Thai class. And then after like a month of doing Muay Thai, I started to see progression. I started to see like my face slimming down, all this stuff. So it gave me motivation to keep going. And then I remember going to a MMA event, amateur, and I saw really big heavyweight guys going at it. So I was like, ah, I think I want to do it. I want to give it a try. And some of my coaches like, okay, if you lose 100 pounds, I'll like, I'll find you a fight. And I was like, a hundred pounds. He's like, yeah, I'll find you a fight. You lose a hundred pounds. So I just kept training within 11 months, lost a hundred pounds, and then took my first fight. And then like every fight has been until now, because like now I have like more of a drive and a passion for it. But all the way up until then, everything kind of happened by coincidence. They're just like, I just, I didn't really want to fight, but I had a lot of people like, oh, you're so good. Like keep doing it. And that was the first time in my life I ever had people supporting me to like really do something that was big. And I was a new guy and I was in shape and I can, you know, girls are noticing me now. I'm like all of my whole life changed within a year of training MMA. Like from going to this guy that nobody even paid attention to, to just like, oh, Hey, how's it going? Or, you know, like, oh, you're so in shape. And I was just like, oh, this is weird. It's still weird. It's only been nine years, eight years, you know, so everything's still very new to me. I've only, my first day stepping on the mat was like, you know, nine years ago. Dude, that's an amazing story. It's crazy. That's like a legit success story. Yeah. It's, you know, is that you look at a ridiculous ringtone? Do you have, sir? Well, what is that? I thought I turned it up. What is that? It's just like stock iPhone. Oh, is it? You ventured into the options. Yeah. Went down in there. Yes, sir. So, yeah, that's like, that's kind of how everything started. And then with three or four fights, and then I tried out for the ultimate fighter. So I had like three or four fights in one year being a pro. And then the ultimate fighter trials came out and I like tried out for that and like made it on. I was like, Oh, shit. So most of my career has been in the UFC. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.