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Alex Pereira can see why Jamahal Hill might be feeling a little sleepy these days.

He still hasn’t recovered from their first fight.

Hill was in attendance at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City on Saturday to watch Pereira’s latest title defense and in an attempt to troll Pereira following the light heavyweight champion’s incredible win over Khalil Rountree Jr., Hill was caught on camera reacting with a mocking yawn.

Not a bad gag by Hill, considering his long history with Pereira and the fact that he’s still sidelined as he recovers from an injury. There’s only one problem: Pereira has already proven he’s the better man in the cage, having flattened Hill just six months ago.

“Maybe he just woke up from UFC 300,” Pereira said when asked about Hill at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference.”

Hill, a former light heavyweight champion, was actually supposed to fight Rountree at UFC 303, but Rountree was forced off of that event after testing positive for a banned substance (resulting in a suspension that was resolved by the time Rountree was set to fight at UFC 307), and Hill subsequently pulled out with an injury. That sequence of events resulted in Rountree being booked to fight Pereira instead.

The good news for Hill is that it sounds like Pereira is planning to stick around at 205 pounds for the near future, so if Hill can return and string together a win or two, there might just be a rematch in their future.

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There’s not much left to be said about Alex Pereira except Chama!

The signature catchphrase from the light heavyweight champion seems fitting after he delivered another stunning performance in the UFC 307 main event. It was a very mature fight from Pereira, who fended off a fast start from Khalil Rountree Jr. only to pour on the punishment with each passing minute.

By the time the action moved into the fourth round, Pereira really began damaging Rountree with his punches as the challenger’s face turned into a bloody mess from several cuts. Finally, Pereira backed Rountree against the cage, uncorked two brutal body shots followed by an uppercut that dropped his opponent to the ground in a heap.

The fight was stopped at 4:32 in the fourth round with Pereira moving to 3-0 with three title defenses in 2024.

“I can say that this was one of the toughest fights,” Pereira said following his latest win. “I expected that. He showed tonight why he’s got so much quality in here.”

A battered and bloodied Rountree had nothing but respect for Pereira as he still enjoyed the moment despite coming up short in his first attempt at becoming UFC champion.

“My thought coming into this fight was just to be grateful,” Rountree said. “I was really excited to come in here and I just embraced the moments. I don’t think I was surprised at all. I thought I was going to be able to hit him a lot more. He did a really good job of evading the punches.”

There was no fear from Rountree when the fight started as he came after Pereira with blazing fast punches from the outside. Pereira countered with a stiff calf kick while making sure he stayed out of Rountree’s range with the exchanges on the feet.

Roundtree started to find a home for his lead left hand but he was still coming up just short from really landing on the chin due to Pereira’s height and reach advantage. As the first round ended, Rountree appeared winded as he headed to his corner after exerted so much energy chasing after Pereira.

Always dangerous, Pereira looked like a cobra just waiting to strike as he continued to let Rountree exert himself while he looked for openings to unleash his best strikes. Pereira started throwing a head kick to keep Rountree guessing and then going low to the leg again.

Another kick from Pereira missed and Rountree countered with a huge right hand that caught the Brazilian flush as he dropped to the ground momentarily. Pereira recovered quickly but Rountree definitely got his attention with that shot landed.

Rountree opened the third round with a nasty body kick that showed more variety with his offensive attacks. In return, Pereira continued to chip away at him with those calf kicks and the going back up top with a heavy right hand.

The constant pressure from Pereira also started to include a lightning quick lead jab and Rountree was getting sloppy with his counters. Just before the horn sounded, Pereira came with a knee right up the middle that nearly took Rountree’s head off but he avoided the potential knockout blow.

The jab from Pereira continued to do damage and Rountree’s eye was just cut up and pouring blood down the front of his face and body. Pereira was leading the dance and looking for the kill with Rountree fading badly.

That’s when Pereira just unleased a huge combination that forced Rountree backwards as he got stuck against the cage. Pereira brutalized the body with two massive punches and then threw one final uppercut that crumbled Rountree to the canvas as his night came to a dramatic end.

It was another astonishing night at the office for Pereira, who continuously stepped up whenever the UFC needed him this year and his star power only grows from this latest victory. As far as what comes next, Pereira appears focused on defending his belt at 205 pounds rather than chasing champ-champ status.

“We saw that Dricus [du Plessis] is going to be fighting Sean Strickland,” Pereira said. “He’s a training partner of mine, I don’t want to get in his way. I can move up to heavyweight but this division is great. I feel great with this weight cut and this is where I’m at.”

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Alex Pereira is still the UFC light heavyweight champion after UFC 307, but he was tested by a game Khalil Rountree. In the end, “Poatan” changed the tide of the fight, and in the fourth round, Pereira delivered one of the most brutal finishing sequences in quite some time of the incredibly tough challenger.

Following Saturday’s pay-per-view event, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Pereira’s wild victory, Rountree’s stock rising immensely in defeat, and where both could go from here. Additionally, topics include Julianna Pena’s controversial split decision win over Raquel Pennington to regain the women’s bantamweight title, no-selling Kayla Harrison — who was victorious earlier in the evening against Ketlen Vieira — to call out Amanda Nunes, the judges and referees stealing headlines for questionable decision making, Joaquin Buckley’s big night, and much more.

Watch the UFC 307 post-fight show above, or an audio-only version of the show can also be streamed below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your pods.

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Khalil Rountree Jr. won’t soon forget his epic battle against Alex Pereira at UFC 307, because he’ll have the scars to show for it.

Despite a valiant effort, the light heavyweight title challenger came up short after his night ended with a devastating fourth round knockout loss as Pereira’s championship reign continued. Following the fight, Rountree was transported to a local Salt Lake City hospital for precautionary reasons, which included stitching up several gruesome cuts he suffered during the fight.

UFC CEO Dana White posted a backstage photo of Rountree showing off all the cuts and bruising from the battle against Pereira.

While the result didn’t go his way, Rountree showed tons of heart as he gave Pereira everything he could handle during the early part of the fight. As time passed, however, Pereira seized control with pinpoint accurate striking including a jab that did a lot of that damage to Rountree’s face.

By the time the fourth round was underway, Rountree’s face was a mess and so much blood was pouring out of the wounds that his entire face and chest were both covered.

Still, Rountree kept coming until Pereira finally blasted him with a pair of body shots and one final uppercut that ended his night. He didn’t get the win, but White had nothing but praise for Rountree for his performance.

“He had no fear from the first round,” White said. “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.”

It remains to be seen if all of the damage done was just superficial or if Rountree suffered any kind of injuries from the fight. He’ll get checked over by doctors in Utah before being cleared to return home to Las Vegas.

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Alex Pereira walks out of UFC 307 as a champion, but Khalil Rountree Jr. has nothing to hang his head about.

The challenger pushed Pereira to the limit in Saturday’s main event in Salt Lake City, standing and striking with the feared knockout artist for three rounds before succumbing to a Pereira flurry in the fourth. Every exchange had the Delta Center crowd roaring in approval and that was reflected in the fighters’ earning a Fight of the Night award and an extra $ 50,000 each.

Performance of the Night bonuses went to Joaquin Buckley and Ryan Spann, who both scored impressive finishes on the preliminary portion of the card.

Buckley scored a powerful knockout of two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson in the third round to improve to 5-0 since dropping to 170 pounds. He also earned his fifth Performance of the Night bonus.

Spann collected his third bonus with a first-round submission of veteran Ovince Saint Preux. After rocking Saint Preux with a right hand, he quickly jumped onto a guillotine choke that forced Saint Preux to tap. In his post-fight interview, Spann dubbed the maneuver “The Superman-otine.”

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Jose Aldo couldn’t believe his ears at UFC 307 on Saturday night.

The UFC legend came up short via a split decision (29-28, 28-29 x2) to Mario Bautista on the third fight of the main card. Aldo was devastated after the scores were read and Bautista was loudly booed during his post-fight interview.

Here’s how the judges scored the fight.

See how Conor McGregor and other pros reacted to the judges’ scores after the fight below.

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This is the UFC 307 live blog for Ketlen Vieira vs. Kayla Harrison, the opening main card matchup this Saturday in Salt Lake City.

A staple of the bantamweight division since joining the UFC in 2016, Vieira started her promotional career with four straight wins before suffering her first career defeat to Irene Aldana. Since then it’s been a mixed bag for the Brazilian with high-profile wins over Holly Holm and Miesha Tate, and a loss to current champion Raquel Pennington. Now Vieira has the task of turning back Harrison to earn a second crack at the current champ.

Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka, is one of the most accomplished athletes to ever transition to MMA. After spending the first five years of her career in PFL where she was a two-time lightweight champion, Harrison finally moved over to the UFC this year where she immediately made a splash by stopping former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 300. Now Harrison is on the cusp of a title shot with a win over Vieira on Saturday.

Check out the Vieira vs. Harrison live blog below.

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Alex Pereira is going to be absolutely massive when he steps into the octagon at UFC 307.

“Poatan” puts his light heavyweight title on the line for the third time this year against Khalil Rountree to cap off Saturday’s pay-per-view card in Salt Lake City. After hitting the mark at 205 pounds at Friday’s UFC 307 official weigh-in, Pereira stepped on the scale during a pre-fight meal, and weighed a whopping 230 pounds — a video that originally was seen on Pereira’s Instagram stories.

Check out the fight day weigh-in from the champ in the video below.

Pereira weighed in at 104.3 kilograms, which equates to 229.9 pounds. The two-division title winner captured the light heavyweight championship at UFC 295 this past November with a knockout of Jiri Prochazka. He then went on to knockout Jamahal Hill, and Prochazka for a second time at UFC 300 and UFC 303, respectively.

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Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree have both provided memorable highlights, now putting those two elements in Salt Lake City — a location that has delivered all-time UFC moments over the past couple of years.

Saturday’s UFC 307 event will be headlined by a light heavyweight championship main event between Pereira and Rountree, while Raquel Pennington puts her newly-won women’s bantamweight title on the line against past champ Julianna Pena in the co-main event.

Watch the UFC 307 cold open below, narrated by actor Ron Perlman.

Pereira looks to add to his Fighter of the Year campaign as he puts his belt on the line for the third time this year. “Poatan” delivered brutal knockouts of Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 in April, and Jiri Prochazka at June’s UFC 303 event. It will be Pereira’s fourth fight in the past 11 months.

Rountree gets his first crack at UFC gold following a stoppage win over one-time title challenger Anthony Smith earlier this year.

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Ketlen Vieira has a point to prove at UFC 307.

The UFC veteran once again enters a fight looking to earn a shot at the bantamweight title with a victory, and feels it may finally come if she beats two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison this Saturday in Salt Lake City, especially with all the hype surrounding the former PFL champion.

“I think she underestimates me,” Vieira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “When she says she’s better than me in all areas, she’s underestimating me. She’s a very good athlete, she’s a Olympic medalist for a reason, but she’s not better than me in everything because she’s completely dependent on taking the fight to the ground. We haven’t seen her trade on the feet for three rounds. Maybe she can do that in the future, but I don’t see that right now.”

Harrison said during the UFC 307 media day on Wednesday she believes she “can beat all three girls in the same night,” referring to her upcoming opponent and both UFC 307 co-headliners, Raquel Pennington and Julianna Peña.

Harrison has only fought once inside the octagon, dominating and finishing Holm with a rear-naked choke. Vieira also holds a win over Holm, as well as Miesha Tate, Cat Zingano and Sara McMann.

“I’m used to this already,” Vieira said. “People always say I’m the underdog and I’m still here, beating the best. I’ve been here many times before. When I fought McMann the winner would fight for the belt, and I won. When I fought Cat Zingano, who was the only woman to beat Amanda [Nunes in the UFC], the winner would go for the belt, and I won. I beat two other ex-champions, Miesha and Holly. I’m used to big fights. People have short memory and continue to underestimate me.”

Vieira sees the Harrison clash as a “semifinal” to determine the next contender in the 135-pound division, and expects Pennington to successfully defend her throne Saturday against Peña.

“It’s a great fight for me,” Vieira said of Harrison. “I’m more complete than Kayla, I have more tools. I have good ground game and good judo as well. You can’t learn to defend judo takedowns in judo, but that’s something I’ve done my entire life. And I’m also evolving on the feet. I’m getting more complete every day. If I have to grapple with her, I will. If I have to trade with her, I will. She can’t do the same because she completely dependent on her ground game.”

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