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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree meet in the light heavyweight championship main event this Saturday at UFC 307, a fight that very few in the MMA community saw coming.

Watch MMA Fighting’s UFC 307 Timeline video for an in-depth look at how both headliners got to this weekend’s pay-per-view in Salt Lake City.

“Poatan” became the UFC middleweight champion in short order after stopping long-standing rival Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 in November 2022. After Adesanya exacted revenge five months later at UFC 287, Pereira’s journey led to the light heavyweight division, where he captured his second divisional title two fights later. His reign extended into an unforgettable 2024 campaign, where he saved the UFC to earn knockout wins on the massive UFC 300 and UFC 303 events.

Rountree gets his first shot at UFC gold, doing so as a sizable underdog. The 34-year-old has had a rollercoaster ride from season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter, to an opportunity to pull off one of the most stunning upsets in UFC history.

Will the incredible rise of Pereira continue, or does the era of Rountree begin?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Think you can figure out which UFC fighter we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.

We’re back for another day of the SB Nation UFC in-5 daily trivia game, and we’re switching to a system of a new article each day for the game.

We tried using a single article for the game, updated with the latest game each day, but it was creating a bit of an unwieldy experience in the comments. So, we’ll have the current day’s game plus the previous three days in each new article. That way, you can catch up if you miss a day.

Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game!

What we need from you

1. Play the game
2. Share your result in the comments and on social media
3. Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)

Today’s UFC in-5 game

Monday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

Friday’s UFC in-5 game

The goal of the game is to guess the correct random UFC fighter player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED FIGHTERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it. It will be a mix of well-known players and some “that guys” that we haven’t thought of in some time. The game will appear in slot #3 of the MMA Fighting layout each morning, with occasional movement later in the day.

After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Taunting
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

This weekend (Sat. Oct. 5, 2024), UFC 307 will take place roughly 4300 feet above sea level from inside the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. That’s an important factor to consider for both athletes and sports bettors alike, because that level of altitude can severely affect an athlete’s conditioning.

In a famous example, cardio machine Cain Velasquez lost his UFC Heavyweight title to Fabricio Werdum after gassing out early in the fight. That bout took place in Mexico City at an elevation over 7300 feet, and Werdum spent over a month on location to finish his training camp.

Velasquez didn’t, and he paid the price.

There are numerous non-title fight examples. Just watch any UFC event hosted in Salt Lake City, Denver, or Mexico City, and you’ll be treated to a lot fighters fatigued midway through the second round.

Former UFC Bantamweight champion and current title challenger, Julianna Pena, is not worried, however. According to “The Venezuelan Vixen,” she’s fought at high elevation previously without any issue, because she puts in the work and shows up in shape. As such, she planned to arrive in Salt Lake City on fight week.

“I have fought in Utah before,” Peña told MMA Junkie. “I have fought in Denver before. I know that when I went out to Denver three weeks early thinking that the elevation was this gigantic thing that I had to get prepared for, I remember going out there and after I got my first cardio session done, I was like, ‘I’m not breathing hard. Nothing’s changed. What do you mean?’

“My strength coach was like, ‘I told you we didn’t need to come out here early. If you’re in shape, you’re in shape.’ I’ll be there Monday, and I’ll acclimate. I’ll have the whole week to acclimate, and if you’re in shape, you’re in shape, and you have done your work and done your job, then that’s the confidence you need. I know that I have that mat time and all of the confidence in the world as far as making sure that I’m working hard, so that’s all that matters.”

Her opponent, UFC Bantamweight strap-hanger Raquel Pennington, lives and trains in Colorado Springs, Colorado at 6000 feet. In a fight that feels likely to go all 25 minutes, could championship round cardio be the difference?

We’ll find out in just a few days.

Insomnia

Merab Dvalishvili absolutely has the support of a nation behind him. It’s cool to see!

Nothing like a fist fight on a slip-n-slide.

A quick check in on one of the most exciting prospects at 135-pounds.

Ilia Topuria working calf kicks into his game was very smart. An easy addition that makes a big difference to his range offense!

I love dunking on Heavyweights as much as anyone, but this theoretical match up ignores the simple fact that Kamaru Usman’s knee would explode on impact from the first Gane low kick.

Moises only gets wrestled by Top 10 calibre competition, so this should be an interesting test for Ogden.

I wrote several times about Renato Moicano’s excellent game plan after his BSD win — here’s proof!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

It’s real tough to win an MMA fight if you can’t see the overhand right coming.

Missing a left hook is a terrible feeling of being exposed to counter punches.

Serbia’s Marina Spasic is 6-0 over decent competition at 115-pounds with five stoppage wins. UFC soon?

Random Land

Can you hear the ocean?

Midnight Music: RIP Kris Kristofferson.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Raquel Pennington has seen this before.

Back in 2015, when Ronda Rousey was one of the biggest stars in the UFC, and desperately in need of new competition, Holly Holm made her debut against Pennington to much fanfare following her Hall of Fame boxing career. Pennington actually took Holm to a split decision in that fight before “The Preacher’s Daughter” proved the hype was real when she demolished Rousey just nine months later.

As Pennington approaches her first title defense in the UFC 307 co-main event, she sees something similar happening with two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison, a big free-agent signing poised to become No. 1 contender with a win over Ketlen Vieira on Saturday.

“I feel like Kayla is the new Holly,” Pennington told MMA Fighting. “Everybody’s on her hype train. Everybody else, I feel they really truly had to build themselves up. Like Amanda [Nunes] said, for her first few fights, the world was just constantly talking shit, hating on her and then she proved her damn point and she built that for her.

“You just have some athletes come in and they have that, they have the hype train, they have the fans behind them and everything else and I feel that’s what Kayla has.”

Pennington doesn’t necessarily hold any animosity towards Harrison for the attention she’s receiving, but she knows from her own career that nothing was handed to her solely on name value.

That’s one of the reasons why Pennington wasn’t keen on Harrison getting a title shot immediately after she tore through Holm back at UFC 300.

“I’ve stated it before, I’ve been in this sport for a really long time, I’ve had to work from the bottom up,” Pennington explained. “I’ve never been handed anything. It gets frustrating when you’re busting your ass and there’s athletes who all of a sudden just because they have huge hype or this, that or another and they come in and all of a sudden they get thrown to the very top.

“I was very adamant about the fact — and yeah, being a champion, I’m down to fight anybody — but I just feel as a person and for other fellow athletes who are in the position that I’ve always been in, did I think it was fair for Kayla to come in [and get a title shot]? No. Was I more set on Julianna [Peña]? Yes, because of the history and everything else.”

Pennington gets her wish as she faces Peña in the UFC 307 co-main event with Harrison sitting just two spots behind her on the card.

It’s almost certain if Harrison wins she gets a title shot and Pennington is happy that she won’t have to wait long for a new No. 1 contender to emerge after she gets through Peña on Saturday.

As much as she wishes all fighters had to truly earn their way to the top, Pennington is genuinely excited to eventually face Harrison in the cage to see if the hype is real. In fact, Pennington actually spent a big part of her training camp preparing for Harrison just in case Peña failed to show up.

“Do I love the fact that the matchup is there between Kayla and Ketlen? I absolutely do,” Pennington said. “Do I think it’s definitely a No. 1 contender fight? I do.

“Honestly we prepared for this fight, too, because Julianna has a history of getting injured that it could possibly be Kayla getting bumped up. I know she put it out there she wanted to be the backup fighter. So I prepared for two different chicks here. You need to wait your turn but with that being said, I am older, I plan on going out there and I plan on winning this fight and then after that, do I think regardless it will probably be Kayla next? I absolutely do. I would love to be the one to go out there and just shut that shit up.”

Looking back at the history of the bantamweight division in the UFC there have been a couple of distinct eras starting with Rousey’s reign and then Amanda Nunes’ emergence as arguably the greatest of all time.

Now Pennington is ready to establish a new standard with her first title defense and then hopefully add Harrison’s name to the list of fighters she wasn’t supposed to beat.

“Ronda had her journey and then Amanda came out and just completely cleared out everything and shut everybody up,” Pennington said. “What can I do?

“Well all of a sudden Kayla gets signed and it’s like cool, aside from achieving my ultimate goal, now you have another big game. I would love to shut that hype train down.”

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