Khalil Rountree was overlooked by most entering his UFC 307 main event with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. For two rounds, it seemed Rountree may be on the verge of shocking the world. Then, the champion’s power took over, leaving Rountree a bloody mess before scoring a fourth-round knockout.
Rountree came out ready to fire heavy shots from the jump and his combination of speed and power had Pereira stuck throwing single strikes at a time. That made for a tense opening two rounds, with the standout moments belonging to Rountree as he caught Pereira in the second round with a big right hand after the champion missed a kick, the shot dropping Pereira to the canvas briefly. Rountree also closed that round strong with a big head kick.
In the third round, everything changed as the accumulation of Pereira’s leg kicks and heavy jab caught up to Rountree. Rountree slowed and became an easy target for Pereira. As Pereira’s shots continued to land, Rountree’s right eye first began to swell, then multiple cuts opened.
The finish came in the fourth round as Rountree showed incredible heart, absorbing a constant stream of big shots from Pereira before a right hand, two body shots and an uppercut sent him collapsing to the canvas.
“I can say that this was one of the toughest fights [of my career],” Pereira said after the fight. “I expected that, he has experience and trained in some of the best spots in Thailand. … The gameplan was to let him tire, I watched a lot of his fights and saw that his stamina started decreasing in the second round. As you know, my stamina only goes up.”
Rountree received a standing ovation after the fight and reaffirmed that he considered himself blessed to have had the opportunity to face Pereira before breaking down why he lost.
“I don’t think I was surprised at all,” Rountree said. “I did think that I was going to be able to hit him a lot more but he did a really good job at evading the punches and counterstriking.”
CBS Sports was with you the entire way on Saturday bringing you all the results and highlights from the UFC 307 below.
UFC 307 card, results
- Alex Pereira (c) def. Khalil Rountree Jr. via fourth-round knockout (punches)
- Julianna Pena def. Raquel Pennington (c) via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47)
- Mario Bautista def. Jose Aldo via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Roman Dolidze def. Kevin Holland via first-round TKO (injury)
- Kayla Harrison def. Ketlen Vieira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Joaquin Buckley def. Stephen Thompson via third-round knockout (punches)
- Iasmin Lucindo def. Marina Rodriguez via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Alexander Hernandez def. Austin Hubbard via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
- Cesar Almeida def. Ihor Potieira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ryan Spann def. Ovince Saint Preux via first-round submission (guillotine choke)
- Tecia Pennington def. Carla Esparza via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
- Court McGee def. Tim Means via first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
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