Pre-fight discussion UFC 307 Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday October 5 Prelims 6pm et ESPN+ Main 10pm et PPV

[PurpleStorm]

This Saturday it's UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prelims start at 6pm et on ESPN+ and the Main Card is at 10pm et on PPV. Here's the pre-fight discussion.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr.​

October 5, 2024
Delta Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Main Card PPV 10 PM et
Prelims ESPNEWS/ESPN+ 8 PM et
Early Prelims ESPN+ 6 PM et

UFC 307 - PEREIRA VS. ROUNTREE​

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
OCT 5, 2024

DELTA CENTER, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES

MAIN EVENT TITLE FIGHT LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

ALEX PEREIRA 11-2-0​

KHALIL ROUNTREE 13-5-0​

MATCH		FIGHTERS
11	Raquel Pennington 16-8-0	TITLE FIGHT Bantamweight	Julianna Pena 11-5-0
10	Jose Aldo 32-8-0	Bantamweight	Mario Bautista 14-2-0
9	Ketlen Vieira 14-3-0	Bantamweight	Kayla Harrison 17-1-0
8	Roman Dolidze 13-3-0	Middleweight	Kevin Holland 26-11-0
7	Stephen Thompson 17-7-1	Welterweight	Joaquin Buckley 19-6-0
6	Marina Rodriguez 17-4-2	Strawweight	Iasmin Lucindo 16-5-0
5	Cesar Almeida 5-1-0	Middleweight	Ihor Potieria 20-6-0
4	Alexander Hernandez 14-8-0	Lightweight	Austin Hubbard 16-7-0
3	Carla Esparza 19-7-0	Strawweight	Tecia Pennington 13-7-0
2	Ryan Spann 21-10-0	Light Heavyweight	Ovince St. Preux 27-17-0
1	Court McGee 21-13-0	Welterweight	Tim Means 33-16-1

Shillan and Duffy: UFC 307 Preview​

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BEN DUFFY KEITH SHILLAN SEP 30, 2024COMMENTS
Keith and Ben preview UFC 307, which goes down on Saturday in Salt Lake City and is topped by a pair of undisputed title fights.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!



0:00 Intro: Fighters that, if you don't like them, you don't like MMA
13:01 Court McGee (21-13) vs. Tim Means (33-16-1, 1 NC)
22:58 Ryan Spann (21-10) vs. Ovince St. Preux (27-17)
34:01 Carla Esparza (19-7) vs. Tecia Pennington (13-7)
47:05 Alexander Hernandez (14-8) vs. Austin Hubbard (16-7)
56:20 Cesar Almeida (5-1) vs. Ihor Potieria (20-6)
1:04:38 Marina Rodriguez (17-4-2) vs. Iasmin Lucindo (16-5)
1:13:28 Stephen Thompson (17-7-1) vs. Joaquin Buckley (19-6)
1:26:58 Roman Dolidze (13-3) vs. Kevin Holland (26-11, 1 NC)
1:38:40 Ketlen Vieira (14-3) vs. Kayla Harrison (17-1)
1:54:20 Jose Aldo (32-8) vs. Mario Bautista (14-2)
2:11:44 Raquel Pennington (16-8) vs. Julianna Pena (11-5)
2:23:12 Alex Pereira (11-2) vs. Khalil Rountree (13-5, 1 NC)
2:41:56 A quick rundown of all the picks

 

[The_Renaissance]

Decent, that'll be my Sun afternoon viewing.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

4/12 wmma fights. Some people are going to hate that. But it’s a perfect mix for me as a fan.

I’ll be back later with some thoughts.

Thanks for the thread @PurpleStorm

 

[Koala]

Good card. Interested to watch Aldo, Kayla Harrison, Wonderboy vs Buckley
Tecia, Esparza, Court McGee, Tim Means, Wonderboy, OSP, ARod should all consider retirement
It's a bit of a senior-citizen card
Tecia Torres and Pennington fighting in the same card, I don't know if it's the first time two people who are married fight in the same card
Also, Pennington vs Pena and Torres vs Esparza are fights between people who were on the same team in TUF 10 years ago, and had some beef but Pena and Esparza were beefing with everyone

 

[Luthien]

Card of the year?!

@Sixstring I want my meowvenge

 

[Darkavius]

I see quite a few people picking Pena and while it's understandable I still don't fully know why. The way Pena wins is she tries to overwhelm you, but her footwork and standup are pretty bad. She likes to come in with looping hooks. One of Pena's best attributes is her cardio from my understanding but if you add in altitude and the fact that Pennington already trains in altitude the only way I think Pena wins is if she finishes Pennington before the beginning of the third.

 

[svmr_db]

Roundhill KO 1

 

[Doughie99]

Good card. Interested to watch Aldo, Kayla Harrison, Wonderboy vs Buckley
Tecia, Esparza, Court McGee, Tim Means, Wonderboy, OSP, ARod should all consider retirement
It's a bit of a senior-citizen card
Tecia Torres and Pennington fighting in the same card, I don't know if it's the first time two people who are married fight in the same card
Also, Pennington vs Pena and Torres vs Esparza are fights between people who were on the same team in TUF 10 years ago, and had some beef but Pena and Esparza were beefing with everyone

I recall on that TUF series Esparza and Felice Herrig ganging up and bullying Randa Markos. Totally unnecessary and fairly nasty.

Hope Esparza loses this weekend, badly, and disappears from MMA for good.
Sorry, not sorry.

Don't bother to @ me on this.

 

[PurpleStorm]

Astute observations from fellow sherdogger @BenjaminDuffy.

Stand and Deliver: UFC 307​

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BEN DUFFY SEP 30, 2024 COMMENTS

Every fight matters, but some matter just a little more.

A win is a win and a loss is a loss, of course, but some of them feel bigger than others for various reasons. In some cases, the elevated stakes are easy to define. Picture the fighter on a losing streak who knows he or she is likely fighting for their job, or conversely, any title fight in a top regional organization, where the combatants know the big leagues are almost certainly scouting them. At other times, a fight feels especially important for reasons that are harder to quantify but no less real. Whether it’s the unspoken weight of being a pioneer in MMA from one’s native country or the simple added spice of two fighters who genuinely hate each other’s guts, that fight means just a little more.

This Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will deliver a 12-fight lineup topped by two title bouts, with intriguing matchups all up and down the card. From aging greats like Jose Aldo and Stephen Thompson looking to prove they can hang with the new breed, to anointed contenders Kayla Harrison and Cesar Almeida endeavoring to stay on the path to gold, to talented mid-card fighters like Alexander Hernandez and Austin Hubbard just hoping to prove they still belong, UFC 307 features fighters in just about every career phase. Here are three competitors who are under just a little extra pressure to stand and deliver on Saturday.

You Won’t Get a Third Strike, Cesar Almeida​

That “Cesinha” is fighting on the same card as his former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira, against as blatant a bounce-back opponent as the UFC could have found in Ihor Potieria, is an indication that the promotion has not given up entirely on Almeida despite his decision loss to Roman Kopylov in June. Apparently, the gameplan remains the same: Win several fights in a row, say a few things on the mic, get a shot at Pereira, whether at 185 or 205 pounds.

Having said that, it is unlikely that the Almeida express would survive a second loss. At 36, with a lengthy kickboxing career behind him and relatively little time to develop into a well-rounded mixed martial artist, the time is now for the Brazilian, and the margin of error is zero. The path is still clear, and it begins with getting past Potieria in Salt Lake City – preferably in spectacular fashion.

Remind Them Who You Are, Ketlen Vieira​

At risk of sounding unkind, Vieira might be the most forgettable Top 10 fighter in the entire UFC. Thanks to a fairly low-key persona and an grinding but effective fighting style, it’s too easy to lose sight of the fact that she is 8-3 in the promotion and that last January, she took current bantamweight champ Raquel Pennington to the wire in a title eliminator bout that one official judge and a large majority of professional observers thought she should have won. As heartwarming a story as Pennington’s championship win has been, it arguably should never have happened.

So, on the one hand, Vieira has a reasonable claim to call herself the best women’s bantamweight in the UFC, yet on the other hand she is a 5-to-1 underdog in Saturday’s matchup against Kayla Harrison, the woman most observers seem to regard as the queen-in-waiting, regardless of Vieira, Pennington and her challenger at UFC 307, former champ Julianna Pena. The 17-1 Harrison put together a historically dominant run as a lightweight in Professional Fighters League, dominance which transitioned seamlessly to her UFC debut against Holly Holm at 135 pounds earlier this year, but of the three other 135-pound women fighting on Saturday, Vieira might be the one best equipped to deal with the former Olympic judoka’s skill and brute power. In effect, Vieira is getting her shot at Harrison right now, pre-coronation. She needs to take advantage of it, because the same factors that make her an easy contender to forget – fair or not – will make her easy for UFC matchmakers to bury if she loses. It would be a long, long road back to the title picture.

Keep Your Cool but Don’t Freeze, Mario Bautista​

In May, Jose Aldo added one more line item to his legendary résumé with a one-sided decision win over rising contender Jonathan Martinez, who was at the time riding a six-fight win streak. “The Dragon” appeared to be a stern matchup for Aldo: nearly a decade younger, with far less wear and tear; a big, fast 2020s bantamweight with a brutal kicking game. What appeared to be a setup for a passing of the torch instead became a harsh reminder of Aldo’s greatness, tangible as well as intangible. Aldo looked surprisingly spry and resilient, but Martinez also turned in a strangely flat, gun-shy performance, and admitted afterward that he had been dazzled by the opponent and the moment.

Five months later, enter Bautista, about whom most of the same things could be said as Martinez, right down to the extremely impressive six straight wins. Again, the younger, fresher, bigger up-and-comer has a chance to claim a truly elite scalp, the kind of win that could propel him into the title picture. It’s simply a matter of going out there and performing, which Martinez might be able to tell Bautista can be tougher than it looks. At least Bautista will be fighting within a reasonable day drive from his Arizona training haunts, unlike poor Martinez, who faced the “King of Rio” in Rio. If legacy matters… Bautista might be UFC champ one day regardless of how things go at UFC 307, but he’ll never get another shot at the king.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

Stand and Deliver: UFC 307

Ben Duffy spotlights three fighters who are under just a little extra pressure to perform at UFC 307.

www.sherdog.com

 

[PurpleStorm]

Broadcast Team Set for UFC 307 in Salt Lake City​

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TRISTEN CRITCHFIELD SEP 30, 2024 COMMENTS

The usual suspects will be on the call for UFC 307 on Saturday. Jon Anik will work play-by-play for the event, while Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier will offer color commentary. Meanwhile, Megan Olivi will be the on-site reporter. MMAFighting.com was first to confirm the broadcast assignments.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

UFC 307 takes place at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is headlined by a light heavyweight championship clash between Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree. In the co-main event, Raquel Pennington will defend her bantamweight crown against Julianna Pena.

The UFC 307 main card begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT and airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+. The prelims begin on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT before moving to ESPNEWS and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Broadcast Team Set for UFC 307 in Salt Lake City

The usual suspects will be on the call for UFC 307 on Saturday.

www.sherdog.com

 

[Darkavius]

Saw an interview Pena did with MMA Junkie where she said that going to Utah to prep early for elevation was not necessary. She says she has fought in elevation before in Denver and Utah.

*Proceeds to look at her fight history*

*Sees she lost to Valentina Shevchenko in Denver and lost to DeAnna Bennett in Utah*

*Wonders why after being 0-2 in elevation why doesn't she train in elevation?*

She may win but being 35, coming off a long layoff and fighting at elevation. What's that they say again about the definition of insanity?

 

[PurpleStorm]

Saw an interview Pena did with MMA Junkie where she said that going to Utah to prep early for elevation was not necessary. She says she has fought in elevation before in Denver and Utah.

*Proceeds to look at her fight history*

*Sees she lost to Valentina Shevchenko in Denver and lost to DeAnna Bennett in Utah*

*Wonders why after being 0-2 in elevation why doesn't she train in elevation?*

She may win but being 35, coming off a long layoff and fighting at elevation. What's that they say again about the definition of insanity?

Yeah she says a lot of wild stuff. One would think she'd want to train at elevation early. This may be a brawl. Enjoy the fight.

 

[Doughie99]

Astute observations from fellow sherdogger @BenjaminDuffy.

Stand and Deliver: UFC 307​

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BEN DUFFY SEP 30, 2024 COMMENTS

Every fight matters, but some matter just a little more.

A win is a win and a loss is a loss, of course, but some of them feel bigger than others for various reasons. In some cases, the elevated stakes are easy to define. Picture the fighter on a losing streak who knows he or she is likely fighting for their job, or conversely, any title fight in a top regional organization, where the combatants know the big leagues are almost certainly scouting them. At other times, a fight feels especially important for reasons that are harder to quantify but no less real. Whether it’s the unspoken weight of being a pioneer in MMA from one’s native country or the simple added spice of two fighters who genuinely hate each other’s guts, that fight means just a little more.

This Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will deliver a 12-fight lineup topped by two title bouts, with intriguing matchups all up and down the card. From aging greats like Jose Aldo and Stephen Thompson looking to prove they can hang with the new breed, to anointed contenders Kayla Harrison and Cesar Almeida endeavoring to stay on the path to gold, to talented mid-card fighters like Alexander Hernandez and Austin Hubbard just hoping to prove they still belong, UFC 307 features fighters in just about every career phase. Here are three competitors who are under just a little extra pressure to stand and deliver on Saturday.

You Won’t Get a Third Strike, Cesar Almeida​

That “Cesinha” is fighting on the same card as his former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira, against as blatant a bounce-back opponent as the UFC could have found in Ihor Potieria, is an indication that the promotion has not given up entirely on Almeida despite his decision loss to Roman Kopylov in June. Apparently, the gameplan remains the same: Win several fights in a row, say a few things on the mic, get a shot at Pereira, whether at 185 or 205 pounds.

Having said that, it is unlikely that the Almeida express would survive a second loss. At 36, with a lengthy kickboxing career behind him and relatively little time to develop into a well-rounded mixed martial artist, the time is now for the Brazilian, and the margin of error is zero. The path is still clear, and it begins with getting past Potieria in Salt Lake City – preferably in spectacular fashion.

Remind Them Who You Are, Ketlen Vieira​

At risk of sounding unkind, Vieira might be the most forgettable Top 10 fighter in the entire UFC. Thanks to a fairly low-key persona and an grinding but effective fighting style, it’s too easy to lose sight of the fact that she is 8-3 in the promotion and that last January, she took current bantamweight champ Raquel Pennington to the wire in a title eliminator bout that one official judge and a large majority of professional observers thought she should have won. As heartwarming a story as Pennington’s championship win has been, it arguably should never have happened.

So, on the one hand, Vieira has a reasonable claim to call herself the best women’s bantamweight in the UFC, yet on the other hand she is a 5-to-1 underdog in Saturday’s matchup against Kayla Harrison, the woman most observers seem to regard as the queen-in-waiting, regardless of Vieira, Pennington and her challenger at UFC 307, former champ Julianna Pena. The 17-1 Harrison put together a historically dominant run as a lightweight in Professional Fighters League, dominance which transitioned seamlessly to her UFC debut against Holly Holm at 135 pounds earlier this year, but of the three other 135-pound women fighting on Saturday, Vieira might be the one best equipped to deal with the former Olympic judoka’s skill and brute power. In effect, Vieira is getting her shot at Harrison right now, pre-coronation. She needs to take advantage of it, because the same factors that make her an easy contender to forget – fair or not – will make her easy for UFC matchmakers to bury if she loses. It would be a long, long road back to the title picture.

Keep Your Cool but Don’t Freeze, Mario Bautista​

In May, Jose Aldo added one more line item to his legendary résumé with a one-sided decision win over rising contender Jonathan Martinez, who was at the time riding a six-fight win streak. “The Dragon” appeared to be a stern matchup for Aldo: nearly a decade younger, with far less wear and tear; a big, fast 2020s bantamweight with a brutal kicking game. What appeared to be a setup for a passing of the torch instead became a harsh reminder of Aldo’s greatness, tangible as well as intangible. Aldo looked surprisingly spry and resilient, but Martinez also turned in a strangely flat, gun-shy performance, and admitted afterward that he had been dazzled by the opponent and the moment.

Five months later, enter Bautista, about whom most of the same things could be said as Martinez, right down to the extremely impressive six straight wins. Again, the younger, fresher, bigger up-and-comer has a chance to claim a truly elite scalp, the kind of win that could propel him into the title picture. It’s simply a matter of going out there and performing, which Martinez might be able to tell Bautista can be tougher than it looks. At least Bautista will be fighting within a reasonable day drive from his Arizona training haunts, unlike poor Martinez, who faced the “King of Rio” in Rio. If legacy matters… Bautista might be UFC champ one day regardless of how things go at UFC 307, but he’ll never get another shot at the king.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

Stand and Deliver: UFC 307

Ben Duffy spotlights three fighters who are under just a little extra pressure to perform at UFC 307.

www.sherdog.com

Well... Dang.... Ben can write as well as talk ! I listen to his prefight podcasts frequently, they're a good scan on about-to-happen fights.

 

[Doughie99]

Saw an interview Pena did with MMA Junkie where she said that going to Utah to prep early for elevation was not necessary. She says she has fought in elevation before in Denver and Utah.

*Proceeds to look at her fight history*

*Sees she lost to Valentina Shevchenko in Denver and lost to DeAnna Bennett in Utah*

*Wonders why after being 0-2 in elevation why doesn't she train in elevation?*

She may win but being 35, coming off a long layoff and fighting at elevation. What's that they say again about the definition of insanity?

Yeah that's a big strike against Peña to be real. Pennington trains at altitude. Salt Lake is at altitude AND this is a 5rd fight.
On what Planet is it a great idea to not prepare properly and spend 2 to 3 weeks training and working hard AT THE EVENT ALTITUDE.

I have always admired Peña's spirit and feistiness and toughness but to ignore altitude effects in a FIVE ROUND title fight is just dumb and probably rather arrogant and dismissive of her. Pennington isn't flashy or stylish or have a killer move, but but she is very tough, and very experienced and grinds out her opponents.

I mean...heck Juliana may KO or sub Pennington early and look like a hero but chances are this thing WILL go the full 5 and Julianna's body is gonna be screaming for Oxygen harder than Raquel's is........ (probably).

 

[Poirierfan]

Good main event followed by one of the shittiest co-mains in UFC history imo.

 

[Doughie99]

Good main event followed by one of the shittiest co-mains in UFC history.

Could be worse.
- Imagine Esparza vs Tecia as the comain.

I think Peña will do her best prefight to Jazz up this comain fight. Julianna has never been one to bite her tongue and she is entertaining and enjoys being controversial and I think in the prefight presser she'll kick off with some provocational statements. Nothing will rattle Raquel at all..... But Julianna will try to add some pizzazz to the contest. Dana won't mind at all.... It's a PPV so anything that draws more eyeballs is good.

 

[BenjaminDuffy]

Thanks for the love, @PurpleStorm!

Far be it from me to agree with Julianna Pena on most things, but on the altitude bit she's correct. I lived in Salt Lake City for almost 15 years. It looks picturesque, like you're in Switzerland or something, but the major cities (SLC, Provo) are in mountain valleys. It's like 4000 feet above sea level. It isn't Mexico City or even Denver. It just doesn't make that big a difference, or the Utah Jazz and BYU Cougars would be slaughtering coastal teams as the visitors collapsed around their supplemental oxygen tanks.

 

[Poirierfan]

Could be worse.
- Imagine Esparza vs Tecia as the comain.

I think Peña will do her best prefight to Jazz up this comain fight. Julianna has never been one to bite her tongue and she is entertaining and enjoys being controversial and I think in the prefight presser she'll kick off with some provocational statements. Nothing will rattle Raquel at all..... But Julianna will try to add some pizzazz to the contest. Dana won't mind at all.... It's a PPV so anything that draws more eyeballs is good.

I'm looking at the co-main from my perspective. I've never cared not 1% to watch either Pena or the so called current "champ". Both are boring as hell to me. I've seen enough of both fighters over the years to know that they're not my thing.

 

[Doughie99]

I'm looking at the co-main from my perspective. I've never cared not 1% to watch either Pena or the so called current "champ". Both are boring as hell to me. I've seen enough of both fighters over the years to know that they're not my thing.

Fair enough on that.

 

[Danespina]

Good main event followed by one of the shittiest co-mains in UFC history imo.

I understand why. But I like it. Genuinely don't know who's going to win.

I also like when the champ's next opponent is decided the same night. It'll be like a tiny bracket with Harrison/Viera.