Khalil Rountree Jr. eyes title to honor late fathers name in UFC 307

In his early fighting days, he was “The War Horse.”Now, when Bruce Buffer belts out his name, he keeps it straight forward: Khalil Rountree Jr.That abbreviation at the end is an ongoing ode to the man he never got to know, a man who was taken from him when he was too young to remember.“I only hear good things,” Rountree told The Post during a recent video call, referring to his dad who was murdered in 1992 at the Chicago hotel where he stayed as tour manager for Boyz II Men at the time.“The stories I hear, they’re always around the lines of: Oh, your dad, he was there for me.”On Saturday, Rountree gets his chance to add another word to the end of his name — champion — when he squares off in the UFC 307 (10 p.m.

ET, ESPN+ pay-per-view) main event against light heavyweight king Alex Pereira in Salt Lake City, Utah.In the process, that’s an opportunity to bring new glory to the name he and his father share.“It’s so cool.It’s so important,” says Rountree of that possibility.

“I think for me, it’s everything that I’ve worked for, really.Not knowing my dad growing up but knowing what happened to him, I always just wanted to — or, not always, but there became a time and especially when I started fighting — that I wanted to honor him and make something of myself so that I can imagine him looking down and being proud. “Like: Wow, my son was this kid that had no courage and locked himself inside of his room to — wow — this guy’s fighting lions in the cage for a world championship.

So it’s really big, and I’m so excited for this moment and just to be able to be in this situation to bring more honor and more light to the work that my father did and also the work that I’ve put in.”While Rountree (13-5, nine finishes), the No.8 contender in the UFC’s own light heavyweight rankings, is among the most unorthodox fighters to be booked for a championship fight — outside of short-notice, injury-replacement scenarios — he...