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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira will have ex-opponent Sean Strickland in his camp for his UFC 307 title defense versus Khalil Rountree, he revealed Sunday on his YouTube channel.

“Poatan,” who knocked out Strickland back in 2022 to earn a shot at the middleweight belt before later becoming friends with the Las Vegas-based fighter, moved his camp to the altitude of Salt Lake City to prepare for UFC 307, which takes place in the capital of Utah on Oct. 5.

“The thing about the altitude is that it’s hard [to train],” Pereira said. “We did this once when I fought [Jan] Blachowicz. We did it for two weeks then, and three weeks now. I think it’s going to be much better.”

Pereira defeated Blachowicz via decision in his first light heavyweight bout inside the octagon, also at SLC’s Vivint Arena, and now returns as 205-pound champion to face Rountree. The challenger earned a shot at gold following five straight wins, including four knockouts.

“We have a great team here,” said Pereira, who usually trains at Glover Teixeira’s team in Danbury, Conn. “We have Glover, Plinio [Cruz], Yousri [Belgaroui], ‘Cesinha’ [Cesar Almeida]. Sean Strickland is also coming next week to train with us here. I’m very happy with this preparation.”

Pereira vs. Rountree serves as the main event for UFC 307, with bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington defending her throne versus Julianna Peña in the co-main event slot.

Meanwhile, Strickland is campaigning for a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis next, but the company has yet to make an announcement on who will get the shot at 185 pounds.

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Do you agree?
| BJPenn.com

Reigning UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira, will defend his 205-pound title against No. 8-ranked division bruiser, Khalil Rountree Jr., atop the upcoming UFC 307 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat., Oct. 5, 2024 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

And he’ll get some help from a former opponent (and ex-middleweight champion).

“We have a good team,” Pereira said on YouTube. “Glover [Teixeira], Plinio [Cruz], Yousri [Belgaroui], Cesinha [Cesar Almeida], and Sean Strickland will be here with us next week. The whole crew is here, [I am] very happy, excited. With all this preparation, for me it’s been very good to do this, come three weeks earlier.”

Salt Lake City is known for its punishing altitude, nearly 4,300 feet above sea level.

Pereira (11-2) has been nothing short of unstoppable since migrating to the 205-pound weight class back in early 2023. “Poatan” is coming off three straight knockout victories over Jiri Prochazka (twice) and Jamahal Hill.

The Brazilian stopped Strickland by way of knockout at UFC 276 in summer 2022.

Rountree (13-5, 1 NC) is the winner of five straight, with four of those contests ending by way of knockout. That includes his UFC Vegas 83 destruction of one-time title challenger Anthony Smith back in late 2023.

For the current UFC 307 fight card and PPV lineup click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Valentina Shevchenko didn’t keep receipts, but she was definitely shocked to see how many professional fighters picked against her in the trilogy with Alexa Grasso at UFC 306.

While she was winning the majority of their first fight until getting caught with a submission late in the fourth round and then by all accounts deserving of a win in the rematch if not for some controversial scoring from the judges, Shevchenko somehow felt like she was being underrated ahead of the third fight.

That’s why she felt the need to put the nail in the coffin when it came to her rivalry with Grasso and what resulted was a one-sided fight from start to finish.

“Surprisingly for me, many UFC fighters, many pro fighters when they had their picks before our third fight they said ‘Grasso … oh Grasso.’ It was kind of one-sided,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting.

“It was a little bit surprising for me that I would take it from people who don’t know much about martial arts, and they just want to see stupid in the striking, like [finding out] who has a stronger chin, a stronger head and it doesn’t involve too much technique, too much fighter IQ, too much of the character of the fighter. I would take it from those people but when pro fighters say that, it was like, oh my God. There’s something wrong with this world. That’s another reason I had to show domination. I had to show I’m superior in every field.”

A big part of the problem that Shevchenko identified was the way her trilogy with Grasso was promoted with the majority of the attention being paid to her opponent.

Shevchenko understood that UFC 306 was billed as a “love letter to Mexico” with the card built around celebrating Mexican Independence Day. Grasso was also the only Mexican champion competing at the event, so shining a brighter spotlight on her made sense.

That said, Shevchenko didn’t appreciate she was somehow forgotten when it came to the highlights from their previous two fights.

“When constantly, over the year, they’re showing the best moments of one fighter and it doesn’t show anything from the other fighter, but the people they don’t watch the full fight,” Shevchenko lamented. “They just see these small clips and they just hear it repeated and repeated. It’s kind of like this is how propaganda works. It’s kind of like [hard] to deal with.

“I knew, for example what had happened in the second fight, for example there is a combination, 10 successful hits from my side and one hit from her side. The media to promote the new champion, to celebrate everything, they get rid of all of my successful combinations and just focus on this one good combination from her. They repeat this over and over. People who didn’t watch the fight, and it’s sad, they don’t watch the fight — they just listen and see all these replays and they start to believe that it’s true.”

To counter that promotional push for Grasso leading into UFC 306, Shevchenko took it upon herself to leave no doubts this time around.

She out-struck Grasso on the feet, took her down eight times and racked up over 16 minutes of control time on the canvas. It was a clean sweep with unanimous 50-45 scorecards across the board as Shevchenko defeated Grasso and reclaimed her UFC flyweight title.

“I knew going into this fight, I cannot let this happen again,” Shevchenko said. “I didn’t have another choice. Don’t let her have these successful combinations, not even one. That’s why I was faster in the striking, she could not respond to my striking and I want to show my skills on the ground game because hearing all people say ‘Valentina, you’re a striker, you’re going to be all striking, you don’t have wrestling.’ I don’t know why but they thought she could out-wrestle me. Yeah definitely it’s because of a lucky submission in the first fight when I lost my belt and everyone thought, ‘You are just a striker you don’t have a ground game.’ But I am a martial artist. I am an MMA fighter. I’m a complete fighter. I have to show that you forget, this is my ground game.

“It was no choice for me. They didn’t leave me another one. Just to completely destroy the game plan of Alexa and show that she cannot do anything, not in the striking, not in the wrestling, not in the grappling.”

With Grasso beaten and the UFC title back around her waist, Shevchenko is happy to put the past behind her, which is why she’s not calling out anybody by name when it came to the fighters who picked against her.

She’s happy to let bygones be bygones, although just know, Shevchenko is always watching.

“When you win the fight, you’re already passed it. You never look back,” Shevchenko said. “Every time I try to see the best in people, the good in people because I think this is important.

“Everyone can make errors. If you don’t have a chance to correct these errors for the people, how will it work? It never will work. That’s why there’s no trust for each other. I give people a second chance.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor backs AJ
| BJPenn.com

‘Chaos’ isn’t known for his submission game, but that didn’t stop him from sleeping Lil Pump with a choke during a recent Kick stream from the rapper.

Colby Covington hasn’t been seen in the cage since a one-sided title fight loss to Leon Edwards in December 2023. Since then he’s been nursing a badly broken foot, and has turned down fights as he prepares for a strategic return to the welterweight division.

In the meantime, though, he’s taken the time to film a promotional video with rapper Lil Pump that shows he’s not planning on giving up his mantle as the most villainous fighter on the UFC’s roster.

A clip from an apparent grappling session with Lil Pump shows Covington catching the rapper in a choke and holding onto it as his helpless opponent taps multiple times. Rather than releasing the hold, Covington readjusts and puts the flailing Lil Pump to sleep.

“Look at his eyes, bro” Covington says as someone lifts the rapper’s legs up to get blood back into his brain. “He’s out. Look at his eyes. Holy!”

As Lil Pump regains consciousness and laughs, someone says “You went to sleep. For real.”

“Don’t miss my next kick stream,” Lil Pump declared on his Instagram alongside another view of the incident. “It’s getting crazier by the day. Don’t try this at home, I got put to sleep.”

Lil Pump is on a one month break from a world tour that has taken him from Australia to across Europe. In a week he’ll be performing in California before packing up and heading to Hong Kong, Nepal, and Thailand. MMA has become a passion for the 24-year-old, and in August he shared footage training with Colby, catching “Chaos” in his own choke.

“I’m 1-0 MMA, who should I fight next?” he captioned the video.

“Coming for blood in the rematch,” Covington replied in the comments.

It seems he wasn’t kidding.

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