Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. put on a show in the UFC 307 main event and earned high praise from their boss.
The battle between two elite strikers ended after Pereira busted up Rountree in the fourth round as several cuts resulted in blood just pouring down the challenger’s face and chest. With Rountree fading, Pereira seized on the opening by delivering a pair of brutal body shots followed by an uppercut that helped him secure his third knockout win in 2024.
UFC CEO Dana White took a victory lap after he heard some complaints that Rountree wasn’t deserving because of his ranking because he knew the stylistic matchup would deliver come fight night.
“Did this not play out the way everybody thought it would?” White said at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference. “Everybody knew. Everybody at first, ‘Oh, he’s ranked No. 8’ — you knew it was going to be a badass fight. You knew it was going to be a badass fight.
“You can never measure heart. You don’t know how that’s going to go. Now you know.”
While Pereira ultimately got the win, he had to bide his time during the first couple of rounds as Rountree came out gunning for the knockout.
White was incredibly impressed by Rountree’s willingness to stand in the pocket and exchange with arguably the most lethal striker in recent UFC history.
“He had no fear from the first round,” White said about the title challenger. “Khalil Rountree went in there and started going at it the minute the bell rang. No fear, no jitters, no nerves. Maybe he had some jitters and nerves, if he did, he didn’t show it.
“He went right in against one of the baddest dudes of all time and just started mixing it up with him. It was awesome.”
When it came to Pereira’s performance, White noted that “Poatan” used a brilliant strategy to dismantle Rountree by chopping away at his foundation through a series of crippling calf kicks.
After Rountree’s leg was chewed up and compromised, Pereira didn’t have to fear reprisal as much when he stepped in the pocket to trade punches. That led to Pereira slicing and dicing Rountree with his lead jab before he set up the fight-finishing combination against the cage.
“I felt like the difference was the low leg kick,” White said about Pereira’s strategy. “When he started calf kicking him, he was destroying that leg and [Khalil] was having trouble putting pressure on it and he was having trouble with his punching power, his movement everything. He systematically just started picking him apart.”
It turns out Pereira had his opponent perfectly scouted because White was reminded about a pre-fight feature where the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion laid out exactly what he needed to do to beat Rountree on Saturday night.
“When I watched the feature [on the fight], he said, ‘This guy hits hard, he’s tough, he’s this, he’s that and this guy has a dream but my fight IQ will win this fight,’” White said. “He said that in the combo feature and that’s exactly the way it played out.”
Considering the momentum that Pereira has built recently along with the highlight-reel finishes, he’s starting to put together the kind of résumé that rivals a number of UFC legends.
That includes Anderson Silva, who was arguably the most feared champion on the entire UFC roster during his reign over the middleweight division. Now it seems like Pereira is carrying around that same kind of invincible aura.
“What this guy has done is unbelievable,” White said about Pereira. “Not just if you want to compare him to [Anderson Silva], the way he’s done it. This guy destroys everybody.”
Joe Rogan provided some inside information about the absolute force behind Alex Pereira’s strikes following UFC 307.
Rogan, who called the action with Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier during Saturday’s event in Salt Lake City, revealed on the broadcast following Pereira’s fourth-round knockout of Khalil Rountree in the headliner that he spoke with referee Marc Goddard — the third man in the octagon with the two light heavyweight championship competitors — about the fight.
What Rogan heard he needed to share immediately.
“I was in the octagon after the fight and Marc Goddard came up to me and he said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years,’” Rogan said. “And he goes, ‘The way he hits people, the sound is like nothing that I’ve ever heard before.’
“He said, ‘It’s ungodly.’ That’s what he kept saying. He says it’s ungodly.”
Pereira made a strong case for the 2024 Fighter of the Year with his third title defense of the year, and third sensational knockout. “Poatan” began the year with a brutal knockout of Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 in April, and followed it up with a head kick finish of Jiri Prochazka in June at UFC 303.
Mauricio Ruffy | Photo by Alexandre Loureiro/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
An explosive lightweight showdown between Charlie Campbell and Mauricio Ruffy was booked for UFC 309 in New York, multiple people with knowledge of the situation confirmed to MMA Fighting following a report from Ag. Fight.
UFC 309 will take place at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16 and air live on pay-per-view. Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic headlines the card for the heavyweight belt, with Charles Oliveira taking on Michael Chandler in the co-main event.
Campbell (9-2) enters the cage riding a three-fight winning streak, including a bonus-winning first-round knockout over Alex Reyes in September of 2023. “The Cannibal” won a decision over Trevor Peek in his most recent appearance this past April.
Ruffy (10-1) impressed in his UFC debut by knocking out Jamie Mullarkey in under five minutes, collecting a $ 50,000 bonus for his performance at UFC 301. Ruffy has a 100 percent knockout rate in MMA, which includes his Dana White Contender Series victory over Raimond Magomedaliev in 2023.
Renan Barao | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao and 10 other MMA personalities tried their luck running for seats as city councillors but failed to earn enough votes during the elections on Oct. 6.
Barao, who once reigned as the best 135-pounder, only gathered 253 votes in Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte.
Felipe Arantes, who went 5-6-1 under the UFC banner with his best win being a submission over Yves Jabouin, earned 14.607 votes in São Paulo. Godofredo Pepey, who lost to Arantes by knockout in the octagon back in June of 2013, received 77 votes in Fortaleza.
The second-most voted MMA personality was Chute Boxe leader Rudimar Fedrigo with 3.758 in Curitiba which was also not enough. Former Chute Boxe fighter Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons also ran for a seat in Curitiba, but received only 143 votes. Evangelista Santos, another Chute Boxe veteran, gathered 341 votes in his hometown Rondonopolis.
The least voted MMA figure was 56-fight veteran Paulo Bananada with only 12 votes in Sapé. TUF veteran Delson Heleno received 111 votes in Teresopolis, while Ronys Torres had 472 votes in Manacapuru. Ralph Gracie, with 1.422 votes in Rio de Janeiro, and Tiago Trator, voted for 257 times in Laranjal do Jari, complete the list.
Amanda Nunes | Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Amanda Nunes took on social media to send a unique message to UFC CEO Dana White.
“The Lioness”, who retired from the sport after defending her UFC bantamweight title against Irene Aldana in June of 2023, posted a video singing “Outdoor”, of Brazilian samba group Só Pra Contrariar.
Nunes changed the lyrics to ask White to “call me, please,” adding that “I miss you so much.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Guilherme Cruz (@guicruz.mma)
The original lyrics are as follows.
I can’t believe you won’t look for me
I’ve suffered too much beyond what I deserve
Oh, please call
I miss you so much
Nunes left the UFC as a two-division champion, winning 14 of her past 15 fights. Julianna Peña — the lone loss for Nunes during that stretch, who beat “The Lioness” for the 135-pound belt before losing their rematch — called for a trilogy bout after defeating Raquel Pennington in the co-main event of UFC 307 this past Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Israel Adesanya knows as well as anyone when Alex Pereira is ready to rock.
The combat sports rivals have squared off twice in kickboxing and twice in MMA championship bouts, with Pereira winning two of those fights via knockout, and Adesanya holding bragging rights most recently when he flattened Pereira at UFC 287.
Pereira subsequently moved up to light heavyweight, where he captured a second UFC title that he has defended three consecutive times. This past Saturday at UFC 307, Pereira was taken to the limit by challenger Khalil Rountree Jr., but emerged victorious with a fourth-round finish.
As he does with most major UFC events, Adesanya uploaded video of his reaction to the main event and the rest of the main card, which can be watched below.
“If Khalil knocks him out, it would be amazing, but I think Alex is going to knock him out,” Adesanya predicted ahead of the fight.
During the contest, Adesanya broke down how Pereira’s strategy differed from previous fights, pointing out how Pereira was keeping a higher guard than usual and that Rountree would need a knockout to win after absorbing a number of debilitating leg kicks in the fight.
He also marveled at Pereira’s ability to continue pushing the pace in the championship rounds.
Rountree was actually up on all three judges’ scorecards heading into Round 4, but Pereira appeared to be gaining strength at the end of the third and Adesanya sensed the end was near for the challenger.
“I can feel it,” Adesanya said. “Now, it’s going to be ‘Chama’ time.”
Sure enough, Pereira closed the show with a brutal flurry of offense, hammering a resilient Rountree until he crumbled to the canvas and was saved by referee Marc Goddard.
It was yet another crowd-pleasing performance from “Poatan” and Adesanya made sure to pay him his proper respect.
“He’s got some hard fights in front of him, but he is that guy right now,” Adesanya said.
Middleweight contender Roman Dolidze handed Holland a rough loss this past Saturday at UFC 307, with their bout ending at the very end of the opening round when it was ruled Holland could not continue due to a rib injury suffered while Dolidze attacked him on the ground. Holland looked like he wanted to come out for Round 2, but the bout was eventually waved off.
Holland later replied to an internet troll on Instagram, who wrote him a vulgar message (screenshot courtesy of The Fight Bubble):
Kevin Holland responds to a troll in his DMs:#UFC307 pic.twitter.com/Td61Ub8OxD
— The Fight Bubble (@thefightbubble) October 6, 2024
Holland captioned the Instagram Story post, “Can’t have a response to everyone but yeah I feel like a total piece of shit. My bad to all the ones who put some bread on the line or told they friend I was gonna win. I’m a p*ssy.”
The screenshot also contains a DM reply from Holland, in which he wrote, “I feel like a piece of shit. Rib pain like a vagina.”
With the loss, Holland has now dropped three of his past four fights competing in both the middleweight and welterweight divisions. The extent of his rib injury is unknown.
Alex Pereira’s remarkable run in the UFC continued with a fourth-round knockout of Khalil Rountree in the main event of UFC 307 to retain the light heavyweight championship. “Poatan” has many options in front of him, and while he says he plans to remain at 205 to defend his belt, is that what ultimately happens for one of the UFC’s biggest stars?
On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Pereira and Rountree following their thrilling headliner on Saturday night in Salt Lake City. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for new women’s bantamweight champ Julianna Peña and Raquel Pennington after their co-main event ended with a controversial split decision, Mario Bautista following his split decision victory against Jose Aldo, Roman Dolidze after his injury TKO win over Kevin Holland, along with fellow main card winner Kayla Harrison, and more.
Watch the UFC 307 edition of On To the Next One in the video above. Audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Justin Gaethje | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Conor McGregor vs. Justin Gaethje? It could have happened, or so Gaethje’s manager claims.
Ali Abdelaziz recently appeared on Submission Radio where he discussed a number of topics, including the possibility of a McGregor-Gaethje dream fight that may never happen. According to Abdelaziz, it’s McGregor who has been reluctant to accept the matchup.
“Let’s be real, Conor McGregor will never, will never, will never… he got offered this fight at least five times,” Abdelaziz said (transcription via Denis Shkuratov). “At least five. He never wanted to have to do anything with Justin Gaethje. He said the reason he didn’t want to fight Justin was because Justin talked bad to him on Twitter and Instagram before and the history we have with him. He didn’t want to lose to our team, I guess.”
Gaethje recently told a similar story to TMZ Sports, though he claimed it was actually six times that the McGregor fight was offered and not signed by his adversary. At the time, Gaethje said McGregor couldn’t risk fighting him because “How you lose to me is not how you can lose and continue to be Conor McGregor. That’s a big risk for him and he’s always saying something, trying to take the light away from people fighting in the cage.”
Abdelaziz has a different take on it, alleging that fighters are told not to feud with McGregor on social media if they want to be booked against him.
“The last five, six years we offered Justin Gaethje so many times,” Abdelaziz said. “Never once, never once, this man—Even the UFC, told me this, ‘Hey, leave him alone. Don’t talk with him. He doesn’t like to fight people who talk bad to him on the internet.’ I promise you, he likes to be the one to start the talk and you retaliate.
“Why do you think [Michael] Chandler being so nice to him? Why? Because he was being told not to talk bad to Conor. Conor has to start talking bad and he talk bad back. He’s a weak mental midget. He’s soft like a marshmallow. And he’s a no-good, son of a bitch. This is what he is.”
The history between McGregor and Abdelaziz’s fighters dates back to McGregor’s ugly feud with Khabib Nurmagomedov. When the two fought at UFC 229, Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor by fourth-round submission, but then exited the cage afterwards to initiate a brawl with McGregor’s teammates. McGregor, Nurmagomedov, and several of their associates were fined and suspended as a result of the incident.
Post-fight shenanigans aside, Abdelaziz believes the win was do definitive for Nurmagomedov that the outcome forever changed McGregor.
“It’s been six years since Conor lost his soul to Khabib,” Abdelaziz said. “Khabib took everything away from him. He took his manhood. He took his soul. He was never the same. He will never be the same. He took everything away from this man. This man, every time he look at himself in the mirror, he think about a Dagestani guy who wears a papakha, a wig. This is incredible. He ruined him.
“Khabib said, ‘I’m going to change your face. I’m going to change your mental.’ Remember that? The UFC lost so much money because of Khabib. But this is the game. You have to fight the best and Khabib was the best at the same time and Conor fought the best and he got whooped.”
UFC 307 is in the books and Alex Pereira remains the king of the light heavyweight division.
This past Saturday in Salt Lake City, Pereira retained his title with a fourth-round TKO over Khalil Rountree Jr. in a surprisingly competitive fight. Pereira now has three successful title defenses at 205 pounds and is the current frontrunner for Fighter of the Year honors.
But that’s not all that happened! In the co-main event, Julianna Peña reclaimed the women’s bantamweight belt with a controversial decision win over Raquel Pennington. On top of that, Kayla Harrison picked up a big win, Jose Aldo lost another contentious decision, and a whole host of other stuff happened so with so much to talk about, let’s gather the MMA Fighting brain trust to discuss everything that happened at UFC 307.
1. What is your brief review of UFC 307?
Heck: Weird. Wacky. Wild. It was like having dinner at Olive Garden, enjoying the free salad and breadsticks, having a solid chicken parmesan entree that didn’t knock your socks off, but you just love you some chicken parm, and then having dessert at a five-star Michelin rated restaurant.
The Olive Garden take might be controversial depending on who you talk to, so that perfectly encapsulates a lot of the big storylines in the aftermath — bad judging, one of the worst refereeing performances in UFC history — but what Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. did in that octagon was absolutely ridiculous. Pereira going through what he went through on the road to the fight, to not having his fastball, still finding a way to win on a night that was probably nowhere near his best, and then the incredible heart of Rountree on top of it. Absolutely unreal.
Lee: I’m going to double up on the weird angle here. Like, remember when the UFC used to have subtitles for their pay-per-views? Those were the days. This one would be “UFC 307: Weird, Wacky, and Wild.”
Wonky scores and refereeing, some deeply unsatisfying results, Carla Esparza and Alexander Hernandez getting cheered like they’re Anderson Silva, Court McGee finishing someone (!!!), it was just one strange occurrence after another. I don’t know if UFC 307 was good by your standard definition of that word, but it was memorable. We’ll be talking about this one for a while.
Martin: A great main event, an incredible knockout to cap off the prelims and then not much else to write home about.
On paper, UFC 307 wasn’t the most stacked card of the year, but there were still some notable names competing, but many of those failed to live up to expectations. Jose Aldo should never return to Utah. Kevin Holland breaking a rib (or whatever exactly happened to him) ended that fight and even Kayla Harrison as a 9-to-1 favorite didn’t maul Ketlen Vieira as most expected her to do. A controversial scorecard in the co-main event and then some truly awful refereeing didn’t help matters much.
Thankfully, Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. saved the day and that’s ultimately what we’re going to remember most.
Meshew: In a word: adequate.
Opinions varied about UFC 307 beforehand with some saying the card was weak, while others thought it was weird but quite good. I was among the latter camp, and I’ll be honest, before the two title fights, the naysayers were looking a bit prescient. But then the co-main event between Peña and Pennington exceeded expectations, and the main event delivered an excellent nightcap.
In the end, this card was a little weird, and some of the results were goofy (more on that later), but a lot of meaningful action took place and things ended well. The UFC may not have a hit a home run, but they got on base.
2. What was the best part of the evening?
Meshew: It was the main event, duh.
As noted above, a lot of this card was goofy, and some of it was very dumb or frustrating, but the main event did not have those issues. At this point, Pereira is certified must-see TV, and while I think everyone anticipated that Rountree would at least play his role in delivering a fun fight, I don’t think many of us expected it to be as fun as it was for as long as it was.
Pereira is a cataclysmic force of nature in the cage who has run through past champions, but for nearly 20 minutes, the unsung Rountree found it in himself to match “Poatan.” Rountree did not survive against Pereira, but gave as good as he got for a good long time, even dropping the champ at one point. Rountree ultimately succumbed to the relentless barrage from Pereira but we all got to witness a man enter the crucible and find the best of himself. I don’t know about y’all, but that’s what I’m here for.
Lee: How great was it to see Carla Esparza get her flowers?
I know she’s not the most popular UFC champion ever—she is almost surely the least popular TWO-TIME UFC champion—and her straight-line wrestling style wasn’t exactly the stuff that Fight of the Night awards are made of. But Esparza is a pioneer of women’s MMA and someone who had a heck of a lot of success in the cage, with wins over a number of notable names including Rose Namajunas (twice), Yan Xiaonan, Marina Rodriguez, Michelle Waterson-Gomez, Alexa Grasso, and Virna Jandiroba.
She was the UFC’s first strawweight champion, and believe it or not, likely a future Hall of Famer. The crowd at Delta Center seemed to appreciate what Esparza gave to the game, and the tribute video put together for her was the icing on the cake.
Heck: The correct answer is obvious, so I’m going to go a direction nobody — and I mean NOBODY — thought I would go: Joaquin Buckley.
Yes, you read that right.
After delivering an all-time horrendous callout — and then getting continuous bad heat after constantly defending it — Buckley delivered an A+ night at the office on Saturday with a stunning third-round knockout of Stephen Thompson in a fight that was way more fun than most thought it may be.
On top of that, Buckley did the thing on the microphone. He put over champion Belal Muhammad and assumed upcoming challenger Shavkat Rahkmonov, then came through with a fantastic callout of Kamaru Usman. He may not get that fight, but it was the right name to drop, and an even better approach to it. The man is learning.
Martin: Alex Pereira just doing Alex Pereira things.
While Rountree wasn’t the most deserving contender, he was arguably still the most dangerous. This is the man who flattened kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki just a few years ago, and he came out ready to add Pereira’s head to his mantle. But Pereira was having none of it. He allowed Rountree to get off to a fast start, exerting a whole lot of energy and constantly whiffing on many of his biggest punches.
Like Floyd Mayweather used to do so routinely during his boxing career, Pereira gave away a round or two so he could get a read on Rountree and then he started picking him apart. It was really masterful to watch Pereira start chipping away with calf kicks and then stabbing Rountree with one of the nastiest jabs we’ve seen since Georges St-Pierre retired. Once he saw that his prey was wounded, Pereira truly transformed into the predator.
This may not go down as his biggest win but it’s arguably Pereira’s most mature performance to date and that was awe-inspiring to witness. Oh and it’s just his third title defense inside six months. Hello, Fighter of the Year!
3. What was your least favorite part of the evening?
Lee: Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the denizens of Salt Lake City sought to balance out their respect for Esparza with a bizarre amount of vitriol for her opponent Tecia Pennington.
It has to be noted that their motivation for booing Pennington was likely their disagreement with the decision (including a debatable 30-27 score in Pennington’s favor), but that negativity spilled over in the worst way when Pennington used her post-fight speech time to dedicate her fight to Breast Cancer Awareness and her recently deceased grandmother. Yes, the fans continued to boo as Pennington mentioned her grandmother who died from breast cancer.
The most optimistic read of the situation is that the majority of the audience couldn’t hear what Pennington was saying and were planning to boo no matter what she said, but maybe… don’t do that? Listen first?
Whatever the reason, it made the good people of Utah come off as soulless demons on the broadcast.
Heck: Yes, the judging was bad, and I believe Raquel Pennington and Jose Aldo should’ve gotten their hands raised, and you can certainly make a case that Carla Esparza’s swan song should’ve ended happier.
But it’s referee Dave Seljestad, and it’s not all that close.
Refereeing as a whole continues has gotten a lot worse in 2024. The third person in the cage just doesn’t want to put themselves in a position to impact the result of a fight, I get it, but what Seljestad did in the Cesar Almeida vs. Ihor Potieria fight was inexcusable. This isn’t hyperbole, Seljestad made a case of having the worst showing from a referee I’ve ever seen in a UFC fight. Almeida delivered four eye pokes, and a low blow to Potieria, and not only did a point not get taken, but Seljestad didn’t even deliver a performative stern warning. Seljestad went on to create awkward separations and took the headlines fully away from the fighters.
I hate to be that guy, but he either needs to go back to referee school and brush up, or he should find a new line of work.
Martin: My colleague Mr. Heck is correct with his criticism of referee Dave Seljestad — that was just horrendous — but I’ll single out Julianna Peña for fumbling the ball so badly after she won a title most didn’t believe she deserved.
After “beating” Raquel Pennington in the co-main event, Pena had the chance to start building towards her inevitable title defense against Kayla Harrison but instead she just completely ignored the No. 1 contender and instead called for a fight against somebody who’s been retired for over 16 months.
Maybe Amanda Nunes eventually comes back, or perhaps she just stays retired, but right now she’s not even on the active roster. At best if Nunes declared her comeback today, she still needs at least six months of drug testing before she could fight, and the UFC is obviously setting up a fight between Pena and Harrison. The production team even had a split screen set up showing Harrison backstage for her immediate reaction and Pena still somehow whiffed! For somebody who spent all week claiming she was a better representative for the women’s bantamweight division, Pena walked away from UFC 307 with a controversial win and then asked for a fight that probably won’t happen. Way to go.
Meshew: All of these choices are excellent, but they’re not the right one. There is only “worst thing” that happened Saturday, and it should be everyone’s least favorite thing: Mario Bautista.
Jose Aldo is one of six greatest fighters in MMA history. “Living Legend” is a term that gets bandied about too often but it absolutely applies to “The King of Rio.” But despite this reality, Aldo has not leveraged his legend status in the final years of his career to cherry-pick fights like other have (*cough* looking at you, Jon Jones *cough*). Instead, Aldo is willing to give no-name up-and-comers their shot at a legend. He is an honorable man.
And in the lead up to this fight, Bautista proclaimed he would also be honorable. At the pre-fight press conference, Bautista promised there would be blood in the fight. But when the time came and his soul was put to the test, Bautista blinked. Instead of delivering the blood and guts he promised, Bautista grabbed a leg and desperately held onto a clinch.
Setting aside the fact that per the scoring criteria, Aldo 100 percent should have won that fight, everything about this was terrible. Bautista did not make a single fan with that performance and very likely lost many of them. And on top of it, at least when Merab Dvalishvili did the same thing to Aldo, we all kind of knew he’d go on to fight for the belt.
We wasted one of the few remaining Aldo fights on an opponent who promised us steak and delivered a cowpatty. Bummer.
4. Did anything surprise you?
Lee: Yeah, Court McGee finishing a fight!
In a stat that sounds crazy but actually shouldn’t be the least bit surprising, McGee submitted Tim Means to pick up his first finish since locking in an arm-triangle on Ryan Jensen at UFC 121 in 2010. UFC 121! That actually happened on Oct. 23 of that year, so McGee was close to going 14 years without a win via knockout or submission.
The Ogden native fought in his home state for the first time since 2016 and one can only credit the glorious Utah air for activating McGee’s dormant killer instinct. Twenty-three UFC fights, three submission wins in that time, one magical evening.
Heck: Not really, because it’s 2024 and very few things could. So I’ll take this a different, and more disgusting direction — the blood booger.
Khalil Rountree is getting his flowers from the Salt Lake City crowd for his efforts against Alex Pereira. Mid-sentence, a red, slimy, thick, gooey, blood strand that can be compared to the little kid from Big Daddy spitting on the ground after eating a dozen packets of ketchup. Rountree then, with full class, put a towel in front of the ooze, carried on with his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan and soaked in the applause.
It was disgusting to watch live, but in a weird way, it was a poetic conclusion to the night, the fight, and the Rountree build to this ultimate challenge.
Meshew: Joaquin Buckley did the thing!
Mike already spoke on this so I won’t elaborate too much, but I’ve been pretty hard on Buckley this year (deservedly so) for just about everything he’s done outside of the cage. His bad callout of Conor McGregor, to then starting an ill-informed beef with beloved fighter Cub Swanson, and sort of hinting at fighting Daniel Cormier over nothing, was all a showcase in how to alienate fans. But then UFC 307 came around and he totally redeemed himself!
Not only did Buckley finish Stephen Thompson, but he had to dig deep to do it as the fight was tougher than expected. And then the Kamaru Usman callout was excellent for all the reasons Mike stated. I hope Buckley gets that matchup and he keeps this newfound energy heading into 2025.
Martin: Jon Anik nearly jumping out of his seat to tackle referee Dave Seljestad during the Cesar Almeida vs. Ihor Potieria fight was awesome.
Generally speaking, Anik is the voice of reason in the broadcast booth because he’s the play-by-play man — his job involves calling the action, and he usually leaves the bombastic overreactions for Daniel Cormier or Joe Rogan as color commentators. But there was a moment on Saturday night when Anik was essentially seething with anger watching Seljestad pause the fight on four occasions for eye pokes yet never actually warning Almeida for the fouls much less deducting any points.
Then Seljestad just started separating the fighters any time they got clinched up against the cage. It seriously felt like Anik was about to pull a Khabib Nurmagomedov except he would be jumping into the cage to dish out some punishment to a woefully poor referee.
5.What is your biggest question coming out of the event?
Heck: What are the matchmakers thinking when it comes to Jose Aldo? Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard are not good at their jobs, they are excellent at them — at least, 95 percent of the time. When it comes to Aldo, it has been absolutely brutal.
I stand by my take that booking Aldo against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278 may be the worst matchmaking in the history of the bantamweight division. With his career (at the time) winding down, and riding a three-fight win streak, Aldo fighting Aljamain Sterling for the title was absolutely the correct move to make. Instead, Aldo got Merab’d despite defending all of the now-current champ’s takedowns, and Sterling ended up fighting a one-armed T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 280 two months later. Super bad across the board.
Then, Aldo fights out his deal in Brazil at UFC 301 against Jonathan Martinez. Didn’t love the booking, but I got it considering the circumstances. Aldo wins, becomes a free agent, and elects to return to the promotion. So what do we do? Put him in a no-win situation against Mario Bautista. As I’ve been saying since the fight was booked, didn’t get this one at all, especially after beating Martinez. I thought Aldo won, Bautista, at least as the scorecard reads, did win. And what does he gain outside of a win bonus (which is obviously important)? Not a damn thing but a bunch of detractors because of how he did it, which many believed was his only chance to do so.
At this point, the Aldo fighting for a UFC title again dream is likely dead. So if we don’t get Aldo vs. Dominick Cruz next, what in the blue hell are we doing here?
Lee: Did anyone raise their stock more than Khalil Rountree Jr.?
Even in defeat, Rountree deserves a ton of respect. Not only did he stand and bang with the UFC’s scariest striker, he landed plenty of shots of his own, several of which would have knocked out 90 percent of the roster. Plenty of us were looking past Rountree to future marquee matchups for Pereira, but Rountree proved he’s a star in his own right.
I can see him taking a post-championship fight career path similar to that of Anthony Smith. When Smith lost an uninspiring decision to Jon Jones, it was easy to write him off. All he’s done since is fight a dozen more times with plenty of Fight Night headliners and main card appearances to his name. If that’s what lies ahead for Rountree, that ain’t bad.
Meshew: How are so many championship-level fighters SO bad at promotion? And when is the UFC going to finally do something about it? To be fair, this isn’t just about this event, but it’s the culmination of an incredibly frustrating year of new champions.
When Ilia Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski, he immediately started talking lightweight and dismissing featherweight challengers. Sean O’Malley tried to dismiss Merab, but ultimately had to give in to public sentiment. After finally winning the title Belal Muhammad tried to pivot to Kamaru Usman despite the entire world wanting the Shavkat Rakhmonov fight. And in the past two events, Merab had the most tone-deaf answer possible when the UFC tried to set up the Umar Nurmagomedov fight, and Peña had the atrocious callout of Amanda Nunes when pretty obviously she’s fighting Kayla Harrison next.
2024 has been a banner year for new champions being completely unable to read the room. These sorts of things at best make the fighter look silly and at worst alienate fans and give the appearance that you’re ducking someone. This is Day One promoting and half the current UFC champions have failed egregiously.
Martin: Did we just witness the end of Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson as a viable top 15 welterweight?
Despite a valiant effort early, Thompson’s night still ended with him face first on the canvas after Joaquin Buckley unloaded a massive right hand that put him down and out in the third round. The knockout drops Thompson to 1-4 in his past four appearances and none of those losses were particularly close.
At 41, Thompson’s days as a perennial top 10 contender were likely over no matter what, and he was probably only maintaining gatekeeper status even with a win, but now there’s a world where he just slips out of the rankings all together — a position he’s maintained for the better part of the past decade. Thompson says he’s just as spry now as he was at 25, but the results say different.
6. How are we going to remember UFC 307?
Meshew: We’ll remember UFC 307 as the night Jamahal Hill finally won the trash-talk war against Alex Pereira.
JK. Nothing that man loves more than getting dunked on, apparently.
Saturday was the day Pereira bodied two people in one night.
Heck: Again, the answer is obvious, so I’ll go under the radar again. I’ll obviously remember the main event, but I’ll also recall this as a night where both Carla Esparza and Alexander Hernandez were given standing ovations by a huge UFC audience on the same card.
Esparza isn’t usually a fighter showered with cheers, and it’s very tough to please a live UFC crowd, even if it’s the final time you step in the octagon. “Cookie Monster” deserved every cheer, every clap, every bit of positivity she got as she capped off one of the more undervalued careers ever in women’s MMA.
And for Hernandez, the man has been an enemy of the state since the press conference prior to his knockout loss to Donald Cerrone. Hernandez has had one of the weirdest UFC careers I’ve seen since I started covering the sport. He knocks out Beneil Dariush in his short-notice UFC debut and is immediately a top 15 guy in the toughest division in MMA. The man, now six years into his UFC career, might now be getting a rare second chance to make an impression with a lot of positive momentum following a win in a fun fight with Austin Hubbard.
Lee: The card that put the women’s bantamweight division back on track. Seriously.
Combat sports needs personalities, and love her or hate her, Julianna Peña is one of them. And agree with the decision or not, she is once again a UFC champion. Her call for an Amanda Nunes trilogy was equal parts absurd, annoying, and—depending on your perspective—hilarious, and even though that fight unequivocally shouldn’t happen, it was a great way to troll Kayla Harrison.
For Harrison’s part, she impressed against a battle-tested Ketlen Vieira, coming on strong in the third round to cement her standing as the No. 1 contender at 135 pounds. Peña brushing her off should only increase the anticipation for their inevitable grudge match.
And then there’s Pennington, who suddenly became a tragic hero after pummeling Peña in the championship rounds, but still falling short on the scorecards. Fans have never been on her side more than they were on Saturday and that should carry over into her next fight—and possibly a rematch with Peña someday.
Bantamweight is intriguing again!
Martin: It’s the night where Alex Pereira cemented himself as the 2024 Fighter of the Year and one of the UFC’s biggest stars (not that he wasn’t already).
Champions rarely compete more than twice a year these days, and many times it’s only once, but Pereira has now fought and defended his belt three times in the past six months. He demolished Jamahal Hill to cap off UFC 300 in April and then did the same to Jiri Prochazka just two months later while still nursing a broken toe. Pereira waited a whole three months to return to action before vanquishing Rountree on Saturday.
There was a time when Pereira was only supposed to be the guy brought in to give Israel Adesanya a new challenge after he wiped out the entire middleweight division. Now less than three years later — yes, seriously he just debuted in November 2021 — Pereira is one of the faces of the UFC.
At 37, it’s tough to say how much time Pereira has left but enjoy every moment because what we’re witnessing right now is the ascendancy of somebody who could go down as an all-time great.
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