Bleacherreport
Alex Pereira and the Real Winners and Losers from UFC 307
K.Hernandez26 min ago
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC It's a big week in Salt Lake City. Utah's capital city is just a few days from officially entering the NHL with a relocated team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes, but in the meantime, the Delta Center got its capacity crowd feet wet with another in a series of visits from the MMA conglomerate. Dana White and Co. touched down in the "Beehive State" for a fourth time overall and a third time in a pay-per-view setting with a 12-bout show on Saturday night topped by a five-fight portion that includes two championship matches and is being billed as UFC 307. Light heavyweight king Alex Pereira and women's bantamweight title holder Raquel Pennington walked to the cage with jewel-encrusted belts in those two spotlight bouts, with the former meeting No. 8 contender Khalil Rountree Jr. and the latter squaring off with top-ranked contender and former champion Julianna Peña. Pereira was on the bill for the promotion's last visit to the venue - UFC 291 in July 2023 - and made his 205-pound debut with a split-decision win over Jan Błachowicz. He was 8-1 in nine octagonal fights and held titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, winning his last three by KO in a combined 7 minutes and 35 seconds. The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and deliver a real-time list of the show's most definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments section.
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC Alex Pereira had won his last three fights in less than eight combined minutes. So Khalil Rountree Jr. exceeded expectations simply by reaching the championship rounds in his bid for the light heavyweight champion's throne and pound-for-pound status. But man, oh man, did he pay for it. The eighth-ranked challenger made it to the fourth round before finally succumbing to the heavily-favored champion, and he wore the evidence of his resilience on a face with gashes on the bridge of the nose and the right cheek in addition to a jagged cut on the right eyelid that sprayed the cage-side announce table with blood whenever Pereira landed a blow. It finally ended at 4:32 of the fourth when Rountree, already reeling from punishment and fatigue, was wobbled by a hard right hand, drilled by a quick left-right combination to the body, and finally driven to the floor with an uppercut that prompted an intervention from referee Marc Goddard. "I can say that this was one of the toughest fights. I expected that," Pereira said. "He showed tonight why he's got so much quality." Rountree won the first two rounds on all three scorecards thanks to a frenetic style that saw him bobbing, weaving and leaping in with shots that occasionally clipped the champion and made him uncomfortable if not damaged. Pereira rallied in the third as the punishment on Rountree built up and he scored a significant shot with a hard knee in the final minute. The win was his ninth in 10 UFC fights and made him just the seventh champion in the promotion's history to successfully defend a title three times in a calendar year. And now, who knows? Pereira has suggested a return to middleweight was possible but said he'd step aside while training partner Sean Strickland secures a next title shot at 185. A move to heavyweight is also suggested from time to time, but he wasn't specifically aiming at that either. "I can move up to heavyweight," he said, "but this division is great."
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC The dominoes were set up. The fight posters were all but printed. But just as second-time champion Julianna Pena had the chance to pull the trigger on an instant rivalry with Kayla Harrison to begin her second reign, she pivoted back to an old quarry. Pena emerged with a narrow and questionable split decision over Raquel Pennington to regain the bantamweight title she'd lost in her last octagonal appearance more than two years ago, then jumped in the callout time machine to suggest Amanda Nunes return to make it a trilogy. The "Venezuelan Vixen" won the title for the first time with a shocking finish of Nunes at UFC 269 in late 2021, then lost it back to the "Lioness" in their UFC 277 rematch in 2022. Nunes fought again in 2023 and retired soon after, creating the title vacancy Pennington had filled in January. Harrison was on the screen waiting for Pena to confirm she'd be next in line for a shot, and the two-time Olympic judo champ mimicked a running motion with her fingers as Pena spoke, implying that the new champion was anxious to escape the idea of meeting her. "I'd like Nunes to quit ducking and come back so we can settle it," Pena said. "We're 1-1. I do not believe she's staying retired." Pennington, meanwhile, suggested she deserved the decision and the B/R card agreed, giving her rounds one, four and five for a 48-47 verdict. Judge Derek Cleary's card was the same, but was overruled by Sal D'Amato and Mike Bell, each of whom gave Pena the first three rounds before awarding Pennington the fourth and fifth. "I felt like I won that fight," she said. "This has been a familiar place for me. It was my fault letting it go to the judges."
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC It wasn't a spectacular victory, but Roman Dolidze didn't care. The rugged Georgian had his hand raised after a single round against Kevin Holland when the American pulled out with an apparent rib injury, but it didn't stop him from embracing the heel role as he reacted to an unhappy pro-Holland crowd in Utah. Dolidze lifted his hands to his ears to ask for more volume from the disapproving fans and looked out toward the masses as he drew each of his thumbs across his throat to signal his (at least in the record books) competitive superiority over Holland. The injury occurred on the mat, where Dolidze had kept Holland for the second half of the opening round after a takedown just after the two-minute mark. Holland was successful in limiting damage while in full guard, but a subsequent spin prompted what analyst Joe Rogan said was a broken rib. Holland was punished on the ground for the rest of the round and the fight ended in between rounds when his lead corner man indicated surrender. "I don't want out," Holland said, "but f-k." Dolidze is 8-3 in the UFC and has won two straight. "I think I'm at the top of the division," he said.
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC There's a real good chance Kayla Harrison becomes a UFC champion. But it won't be as easy a march through the bantamweight division as the most hyperbolic of her legions of supporters might have thought before Saturday. Oh sure, the two-time Olympic judo champ and once-beaten (in 19 fights) MMA fighter took another step toward UFC gold with a grinding decision over second-ranked contender Ketlen Vieira, but there were just enough moments of adversity to make it seem slightly less inevitable. Harrison was at least stiffened, if not wobbled, by a pair of hard elbows from Vieira in the second round – and expressed some concern in her corner as her cutman worked on the blood and significant swelling on her forehead caused by the strikes. She got Vieira back to the ground in the third and was deserving of the two 30-27 and one 29-28 scorecards in her favor, but she conceded afterward, at least briefly, that it wasn't easy. "She's a killer. She's No. 2 for a reason," Harrison said. "I came here to challenge myself. This is the first time I've ever bled inside of a cage, so I give it up for her." It was Harrison's second straight win since arriving from the rival PFL promotion, and, once she dispensed with plaudits for Vieira, she got back to her menacing self when calling for a title shot. "Ladies," she said, "enjoy it while you can because the queen is home and she's coming for that f—ing gold."
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC It had already been a weird judging night, with a pair of split decisions and an iffy unanimous decision that could have just as easily gone in the favor of its loser. So it was no surprise Joaquin Buckley wanted no part of Bruce Buffer reading scorecards. The muscular southpaw may or not have been two rounds down heading to the final five minutes against ninth-ranked welterweight Stephen Thompson, but it didn't matter when he kept pursuing, kept swinging, and eventually caught "Wonderboy" with the looping right hand that dropped him to his knees and prompted a rescue from referee Mike Beltran at 2:17. It was his fifth straight win at 170 pounds since a drop down from middleweight and all but guarantees a one (or more) spot leap into the top 10 from his previous slot at No. 11. "We've been locking out all the noise and the distractions and just going to work," said Buckley, who'd gone 5-4 in his early run with the promotion from 2020 to 2022. He'd been repeatedly tagged from distance by the sniper-like Thompson, who was also able to avoid prolonged stays on the mat after each of Buckley's four takedowns. Buckley stepped up the attack in the third, however, and had Thompson in a retreating posture up until the decisive shot, which lifted Buckley to 10-4 as a pro and prompted a callout of former welterweight king Kamaru Usman. "We're going for that throne," he said. "One more before I fight for the belt."
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC She's just 22 years old and the youngest woman on the UFC roster. But just because Iasmin Lucindo is youthful doesn't mean she's inexperienced. The Brazilian strawweight turned pro as a fresh-faced 15-year-old in 2017 and has been almost completely successful from the word go, winning 16 of her first 21 bouts – and three of four in the UFC – before climbing in with respected veteran Marina Rodriguez on Saturday. And now, after 15 minutes with the promotion's sixth-ranked contender, you can go ahead and call Lucindo a legit title contender, too. Tabbed as a pre-fight favorite despite her deficits in age and elite-level opposition, the younger fighter never looked out of place while maintaining aggression and dominating from in close on the way to a split but fair decision in the penultimate preliminary match. One judge gave Rodriguez two of three rounds but was overruled by the other two scorecards, each of which gave Lucindo a 29-28 advantage and matched the B/R tally. Rodriguez landed 65 total strikes to Lucindo's 55, but was taken down three times in four tries and controlled for nearly five minutes while dodging Lucindo's intermittent try at a heel-hook finish. It's her second straight loss and dropped her to 7-5-2 in the UFC.
- Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC Being a Ryan Spann fan is an exercise in stopping and starting. The Texas-based 33-year-old was a quick winner over ex-title challenger Dominick Reyes at UFC 281 two years ago and looked ready for a climb toward the top of the light heavyweight division, but followed the big win with three straight losses – including two finishes. So when he climbed in for a date with respected 41-year-old veteran Ovince Saint Preux in Saturday's early prelim finale, it was difficult to know what to expect. Well, if it's up to Spann, it'll be a lot easier to predict going forward. The 6'5" slugger sent his rival stumbling to the fence with a hard right hand and immediately followed by locking in a left-arm guillotine choke and spinning to the mat to lock it in and prompt a tap from Saint Preux after only 95 seconds. "I wanted to come in here and be free," Spann said, "and I wanted to show the world my work." It bumped him to 8-5 in the UFC and 22-10 as a pro and was the final fight on an existing contract for Saint Preux, who dropped to 27-18 and 15-13. "We're gonna get back to work and we're gonna keep going," Spann said.
- Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC Sometimes, the early prelims are all about rising prospects. But this time around in Salt Lake City, they're a showcase for grizzled veterans. The age range for the six fighters across the night's first three bouts stretches from 33 to 41 years old and the sextet arrived with a combined 66 wins in 120 UFC bouts. Utah native Court McGee made the early arriving fans particularly happy when he ended a three-fight skid and picked up his first submission win since UFC 121 in 2010, cranking the neck of 40-year-old welterweight foe Tim Means until he tapped at 3:19 of the first round. He'd lost six of eight and eight of 11 to fall to 10-12 with the promotion, but seemed rejuvenated this time following surgery to correct a chronic neck issue. "There are no words to explain the gratitude I have for my family and my coaches," an emotional McGee said, shouting his parents out on their 45th wedding anniversary. "I wanted to start the card out on the right foot and it looks like we did it, baby."
Read the full article:https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10138156-alex-pereira-and-the-real-winners-and-losers-from-ufc-307
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