This Saturday in the UFC 307 main event, Alex Pereira once again successfully defended his light heavyweight title, knocking out Khalil Rountree Jr in round four.
After saving the UFC on two separate occasions by heading both UFC 300 and UFC 303, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira wasn’t prepared to take the rest of the year off and booked yet another fight.
To many people’s surprise, ‘Poatan’ was booked to fight number eight ranked 205lber, Khalil Rountree Jr instead of Magomed Ankalaev, who the majority believe to have been the worthy number one contender.
Alex Pereira sets new record following huge KO win at UFC 307
After an incredible staredown between the two before the fight, the fans knew they were in for a special fight, especially considering both fighters promised to keep it standing.
The challenger began the fight extremely comfortably and in some exchanges seemed to get the better of the Brazilian champion.
‘The War Horse’ continued his impressive start in round two and seemed to be growing into the fight, despite his Pereira’s low kicks seemingly taking a toll on him.
Towards the end of the round, Pereira looked to whip up a huge head kick which was evaded by Rountree Jr who returned a big right hand which momentarily dropped the champion. Instead of putting his foot on the gas, Rountree Jr stayed patient and composed and finished the round by landing a huge head kick of his own.
Unfortunately for the challenger, though, the kick seemed to wake up the Brazilian champion, who came out in round three with much more forward pressure and began picking his shots precisely in typical Pereira fashion.
With Pereira down on all three judges’ scorecards heading into the fourth round, he came out in far better shape than Rountree Jr and started the round by landing some huge right hands that caused severe damage to the challenger’s eye.
‘The War Horse’ couldn’t withstand the power and pressure of the champion and after a barrage of punches against the fence, ‘Poatan’ dropped him and Marc Goddard stepped in to save Rountree Jr from any more damage.
With his win, Pereira broke Ronda Rousey’s record for the shortest amount of time between three world title defenses, exhibiting his star power.
Conor McGregor wins huge $1m bet on the UFC 307 main event
Moments before the main event, UFC megastar Conor McGregor took to X (formerly Twitter) to let his fans know that he was wagering a huge bet on the main event.
The Irishman plauded at how good of a stylistic matchup this was poised to be, betting a huge $1m on the fight to end in a knockout for either fighter, winning a cool $200k.
‘Poatan’ stated after his win that he would stay in the light heavyweight division to continue defending his belt instead of moving up or down in weight.
McGregor was hopeful that the Brazilian would announce a move up to heavyweight and stated that he wouldn’t watch Pereira’s next fight if it wasn’t at heavyweight.