Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. placed on a present within the UFC 307 predominant occasion and earned excessive reward from their boss.
The battle between two elite strikers ended after Pereira busted up Rountree within the fourth spherical as a number of cuts resulted in blood simply pouring down the challenger’s face and chest. With Rountree fading, Pereira seized on the opening by delivering a pair of brutal physique photographs adopted by an uppercut that helped him safe his third knockout win in 2024.
UFC CEO Dana White took a victory lap after he heard some complaints that Rountree wasn’t deserving due to his rating as a result of he knew the stylistic matchup would ship come combat night time.
“Did this not play out the way in which all people thought it could?” White mentioned on the UFC 307 post-fight press convention. “Everyone knew. Everyone at first, ‘Oh, he’s ranked No. 8’ — you knew it was going to be a badass combat. You knew it was going to be a badass combat.
“You possibly can by no means measure coronary heart. You don’t know the way that’s going to go. Now you understand.”
Whereas Pereira finally obtained the win, he needed to bide his time throughout the first couple of rounds as Rountree got here out gunning for the knockout.
White was extremely impressed by Rountree’s willingness to face within the pocket and trade with arguably probably the most deadly striker in current UFC historical past.
“He had no worry from the primary spherical,” White mentioned concerning the title challenger. “Khalil Rountree went in there and began going at it the minute the bell rang. No worry, no jitters, no nerves. Possibly he had some jitters and nerves, if he did, he didn’t present it.
“He went proper in in opposition to one of many baddest dudes of all time and simply began mixing it up with him. It was superior.”
When it got here to Pereira’s efficiency, White famous that “Poatan” used an excellent technique to dismantle Rountree by chopping away at his basis by means of a collection of crippling calf kicks.
After Rountree’s leg was chewed up and compromised, Pereira didn’t need to worry reprisal as a lot when he stepped within the pocket to commerce punches. That led to Pereira slicing and dicing Rountree along with his lead jab earlier than he arrange the fight-finishing mixture in opposition to the cage.
“I felt just like the distinction was the low leg kick,” White mentioned about Pereira’s technique. “When he began calf kicking him, he was destroying that leg and [Khalil] was having bother placing strain on it and he was having bother along with his punching energy, his motion the whole lot. He systematically simply began choosing him aside.”
It seems Pereira had his opponent completely scouted as a result of White was reminded a couple of pre-fight function the place the reigning UFC gentle heavyweight champion laid out precisely what he wanted to do to beat Rountree on Saturday night time.
“After I watched the function [on the fight], he mentioned, ‘This man hits laborious, he’s powerful, he’s this, he’s that and this man has a dream however my combat IQ will win this combat,’” White mentioned. “He mentioned that within the combo function and that’s precisely the way in which it performed out.”
Contemplating the momentum that Pereira has constructed not too long ago together with the highlight-reel finishes, he’s beginning to put collectively the sort of résumé that rivals numerous UFC legends.
That features Anderson Silva, who was arguably probably the most feared champion on the complete UFC roster throughout his reign over the middleweight division. Now it looks like Pereira is carrying round that very same sort of invincible aura.
“What this man has accomplished is unbelievable,” White mentioned about Pereira. “Not simply if you wish to evaluate him to [Anderson Silva], the way in which he’s accomplished it. This man destroys all people.”
