UFC 307: Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Card, TV Channel, Start ...
UFC 307 is tonight from Salt Lake City, Utah. The card features 12 fights and is headlined by two title fights.
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The main event features the return of UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC), who makes his third title defense against No. 8-ranked Khalil Rountree Jr. (14-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC, 1 NC).
Pereira has transitioned from kickboxing to MMA since making his promotional debut in November 2021. Three straight wins followed, which led to a middleweight title shot against then-champion Israel Adesanya. Adesanya nearly pitched a shutout, but the UFC 281 main event in 2022 went the way of the eventual new champion. Pereira won the fight with a fifth-round TKO, stunning the MMA world.
Pereira and Adesanya would meet again last April. Adesanya won by a highlight-reel second-round KO, reclaiming the middleweight title. Instead of pursuing a would-be MMA trilogy, Pereira would move up to light heavyweight to establish himself as one of the best modern-era UFC fighters ever.
Since moving up to 205, Pereira is 4-0, with each coming against a former divisional champion. This included knocking out Jiří Procházka at UFC 295 and UFC 303, winning the belt in their first encounter last November.
Pereira is one of nine UFC champions to win multiple titles in different divisions. He joins the likes of Amanda Nunes, Conor McGregor, Randy Couture, Jon Jones, Georges St.-Pierre, B.J. Penn, Henry Cejudo, and Daniel Cormier as a select few to achieve the same feat.
For Rountree Jr., he has done it the hard way to get to an opportunity at a title shot. A winner of five straight since Sept. 2021, he has defeated noteworthy contenders, including Dustin Jacoby and Chris Daukaus. Last December, Rountree finished former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith with a third-round TKO.
With hours until the event gets underway, the betting lines heavily favor Pereira. He sits at -470 at DraftKings Sportsbook, while the comeback on Rountree Jr. sits at +360
The co-main event features Raquel Pennington's first UFC bantamweight title defense against former champion, Julianna Peña (10-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC). Pennington (16-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC) won the vacant belt in January against Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 by unanimous decision. It was Pennington's sixth-straight win dating back to June 2020. Meanwhile, it's Peña's first fight since a UFC 277 loss to Nunes, failing to successfully defend her title after upsetting Nunes seven months earlier at UFC 269.
Check out the full bout order below. The card begins with the early preliminary portion at 6:30 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT televised prelims at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, and the pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
Other notable highlights include Kayla Harrison's second UFC fight, which is a potential title shot-clinching scenario against Ketlen Vieira. Other notables include Carla Esparza's retirement fight opposite Tecia Pennington, plus a key welterweight bout between Stephen Thompson and Joaquin Buckley.
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