Chris Daukaus set to make light heavyweight debut at UFC 289 against Khalil Rountree

Chris Daukaus will be dropping down to light heavyweight.

The UFC announced through a press release that Daukaus will be going down to 205lbs and will be taking on Khalil Rountree at UFC 289. The event will take place on June 10 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with the main event seeing Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena 3.

Chris Daukaus (12-6) is on a three-fight losing skid and coming off a 23-second knockout loss to Jairzinho Rozenstruik back in December at UFC 282. Prior to that, he suffered back-to-back knockout losses to Curtis Blaydes and Derrick Lewis in two straight main event fights for Daukaus. The 33-year-old is currently ranked 13th at heavyweight but will be changing weight classes after the setback.

Daukaus is 4-3 in the UFC as he started out his run 4-0 to earn the main event spot against Lewis. In his debut, he knocked out Parker Porter in the first round. He then followed that up with a 45-second knockout win over Rodrigo Nascimento, a first-round TKO over Aleksei Oleinik, and a second-round knockout of Shamil Abdurakhimov.

Khalil Rountree (11-5) is ranked 14th at light heavyweight and is coming off a split decision win over Dustin Jacoby back in October. Prior to that, he picked up back-to-back knockout wins over Karl Roberson and Modestas Bukauskas. Rountree is 7-5 and one No Contest in the UFC and has notable wins over Paul Craig, Eryk Anders, and Gohkan Saki.

With the addition of Daukaus vs. Rountree, UFC 289 is now as follows: