Khalil Rountree isn’t harboring any animosity towards Sean Strickland after he received an apology from the former UFC middleweight champion.

The friction between the fighters dates back to a video Strickland posted on social media where he blasted Rountree for several alleged altercations that happened while they were training together. Strickland even claimed that Rountree called the UFC to complain about him after he made an off-handed remark about his ex-girlfriend.

“If you met him, you would hate him,” Strickland said. “You need to trust me on this, he sucks.”

On Wednesday ahead of his fight at UFC 307, Rountree addressed light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira bringing in Strickland as a training partner to prepare for him. That bit of strategy didn’t bother him, but Rountree revealed that he actually received an apology from Strickland when they ran into each other a few months ago.

“Honestly, the last interaction that I had with Sean Strickland was at the UFC [Performance Institute], it was literally the day after Dan Ige stepped in that fight [on] like three hours, four hours’ notice or something like that,” Rountree said during UFC 307 media day. “I was going into the P.I., I saw Dan Ige, walked right up to him, gave him his props for having balls of steel just going in there on such short notice.

“Out of the blue, Sean Strickland comes up to me. He approached me and just said ‘Khalil, I apologize, I’m a dumb ass, I actually kind of like you. I think you’re a liberal but overall, I like you or respect you.’ Something along those lines.”

The conversation ended with Rountree acknowledging that Strickland was sorry for what he said in the past and he’s not worried much about what might be said in the future.

If anything, Rountree was happy to put the turmoil behind him.

“What I took it as was almost like squashing whatever beef,” Rountree said. “Just saying I am who I am, I’m going to say what I’m going to say, but I’m coming here to personally shake your hand and tell you I think you’re a liberal, but to a certain level, I respect you. It was like that. I took it as you’re coming here to make the peace and I kind of left it at that.

“Now anything moving forward, anything that’s said or whatever, I got that stored in my memory bank. So I know that there’s really no issue. It’s really just talk and I won’t concern myself with it.”

When it comes to his title fight this weekend, Rountree was obviously thankful for the UFC for the opportunity but he hasn’t paid much attention to the reaction afterwards.

There has been some criticism that Rountree didn’t actually do enough to earn a shot at UFC gold, especially with a proven top-five contender like Magomed Ankalaev waiting in the wings.

It turns out none of that bothered Rountree too much because he hasn’t even seen it.

“I didn’t pay attention,” Rountree said. “I’ve got no space, I’ve got no time for other people’s opinions. Look, I’m fighting for the title on Saturday. As soon as I got the news, that was all that I’ve been focused on. If it upsets people, it’s none of my business.

“My business is to do what the UFC calls me to do. Everyone’s going to have opinions even after this. I can’t let it be my concern.”

If there’s one aspect to the fight that Rountree has embraced it’s the potential storyline about him taking out another world class kickboxer to become UFC champion.

He’s already beaten kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki and holds a win over GLORY kickboxing veteran Dustin Jacoby. Now Rountree faces a former GLORY champion in Pereira with a UFC title on the line.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” Rountree said. “It’s definitely a fun way to look at it, especially from a fan standpoint. If they see Alex as the final boss and I get to go and take my shot at the final boss. I think it’s really cool.

“I think it adds excitement. It adds interest and anticipation. So yeah, I’d like to entertain it.”