Preview: UFC Fight Night 213 ‘Kattar vs. Allen’

Light Heavyweights

#13 LHW | Dustin Jacoby (18-5-1, 6-2-1 UFC) vs. Khalil Rountree (10-5, 6-5 UFC)

ODDS: Jacoby (-175), Rountree (+150)

Jacoby’s return to the UFC has gone swimmingly. Had he never come back, Jacoby had one of the less memorable UFC careers in recent memory. Signed in 2011, Jacoby lost twice over the course of three months—each among the last batches of untelevised prelims—before being shown the door. From there, “The Hanyak” fell into a kickboxing career for a few years before making his full-time return to mixed martial arts on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020. Amazingly, Jacoby has not lost since, keeping up a busy schedule and showing enough striking craft to keep most of his opponents at bay. There has been a feeling that Jacoby has been walking a bit of a tightrope. He has had moments of discomfort when an opponent can effectively mix things up and pressure him, most notably in a 2021 split draw against Ion Cutelaba, but that made it a pleasant surprise when Jacoby laid the wood on highly touted prospect Da Un Jung, scoring a knockout in a shade over three minutes in July. That figured to propel Jacoby up into some bigger fights, but to his credit, he has instead pivoted into one of the highest risk-lowest reward pairings he could reasonably take, looking to hold serve against Khalil Rountree. While Rountree was a consensus top prospect heading into his season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2016, he has spent the last six years as one of the most frustrating talents in the sport. When everything clicks for Rountree, he is an absolute terror, with the power and aggression to destroy his opponents with some horrifying creativity; his last two fights have seen him shred Modestas Bukauskas’ knee with a side kick and dispose of a grounded Karl Roberson with some kicks to the body. However, there are just as many showings where Rountree never gets out of first gear, whether it is his suspect durability, poor takedown defense or just an unwillingness to turn up the heat. There is every chance that, at 32 years old and theoretically in the prime of his career, the Bukauskas and Roberson wins are finally Rountree turning the corner and living up to his considerable potential. Given how the bulk of the last six years have gone, this could just be another instance of false hope. Rountree winning this in brutal fashion would not be a shock—his peak form brings a level of aggression and offensive potency that Jacoby simply has not had to withstand since his UFC return—but having the faith to expect it is an entirely different proposition, especially against an opponent who can take him completely out of the fight in later rounds. The pick is Jacoby via third-round stoppage.

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Kattar vs. Allen
Griffin vs. Means
Cortes-Acosta vs. Vanderaa
Fremd vs. Gore
The Prelims