UFC 307 / LHW and WBW Titles (Pereira/Rountree and Pennington/Peña)

[Clav]

https://www.ufc.com/event/ufc-307

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/116146-ufc-307

Big card this weekend... some storylines

- Could be multiple retirement fights
- elevation in Salt Lake City
- Prelims start 6:30PM ET/3:30PM PT ++ Main card 10:00PM ET/7:00PM PT

prelim
Court McGee v Tim Means (either could retire)
Esparza v Tecia Pennington (Esparza will retire)
OSP v Ryan Spann
Potieria v Cesar Almeida
Hubbard v Alex Hernandez
Iasmin Lucindo v Marina Rodriguez
Wonderboy Stephen Thompson v Joaquin Buckley

maincard
Kayla Harrison v Viera
Kevin Holland v Roman Dolidze
Bautista v Jose Aldo
Raquel Pennington v Julianna Pena (Womens Bantamweight title fight - 1st defense for Pennington)
Pereira v Khalil Rountree (Men's Light heavyweight title fight - 3rd defense for Pereira)

[Clav]

My picks for the weekend

Spoiler:

Pereira | KO/TKO | Round 2
Peña | Decision
Aldo | Decision
Harrison | Submission | Round 1
Dolidze | Decision
Thompson | Decision
Lucindo | Decision
Almeida | KO/TKO | Round 2
Hernandez | Decision
Esparza | Decision
Spann | KO/TKO | Round 1
Means | Decision

My random thoughts....

Spann v OSP should be a KO either way, but heavily leaning Spann. OSP way past prime and fighting in elevation.

Esparza is a two time champion and confirmed she's stepping away after this fight, she was a tough competitor and beat Rose Namajunas twice to win both her titles. Great career, hope she steps away with a win despite the last Rose/Esparza fight being one of the worst I've ever seen, I won't hold a grudge.

Not very excited for the mid-card ....sooo the needle skips until Wonderboy fights - looking forward to that one vs Buckley. Always a fan of his striking.

Holland v Dolidze - I like Kevin Holland's style and he fights anyone, always is a PPV fighter it seems, but if I'm Roman I just wrestle this one to decision. Could be a banger but I'm leaning no, decision Dolidze.

Kayla Harrison -- I'm expecting a dominant win vs Ketlen Viera the 135 gatekeeper.

Aldo is fighting, don't miss it! I'm feeling a vintage win here.

Two title fights....

Pennington beat Marya Bueno Silva to get the belt. That fight sucked, MBS was not on point and had no stamina, no defense, and was dominated. Looked like Pennington was levels above but her level wasn't even that spectacular because her opponent looked like a prelim fighter that night.

Pena hasn't fought since losing Nunes 2 (back in 2022), so who knows how she reacts in the cage. Will she put on the pressure and go for it like in Pena Nunes 1 ? Or will it be a point fight ? I think it will heat up, but could have 2 minutes of feints each round before it does. I'm picking Pena because I'm more confident in her dmg than Pennington.

Fanfiction: I would really appreciate it if Harrison subbed Viera in less than 1 minute, and Pena KO'd Pennington in less than 1 minute. Pena is crowned champion but since they both took no DMG at all, and are fight ready, they step in the ring to trash talk and they both decide to fight each other in the octagon after Pereira / Rountree for the 135 title. Would be awesome. Never gonna happen but, like I said, it's fiction.


Title fight 2 : Is gonna be a KO Guaranteed. Can see it go either way with the power these guys throw. Heavily leaning Pereira because chama... If you' gamble... Rountree is a big betting underdog. I don't really gamble unless I play blackjack or something, but maybe one day for fights.

[GoRapstheoriginal]

Great night of fights so far!

[Prez]

Poatan is the **** terminator.

[NO-KG-AI]

Props to Rountree. Imagine what your body has to feel like the day after absorbing 127 strikes from Poatan.

[jc23]

Roundtree's team should have thrown in the towel. He was done and was only going to take more damage at a certain point.

Pereira now has my favorite entrance, eclipsing BJ Penns.

[Clav]

There's so many weird things that happened on this card. The Main Event pretty much is what will grab the biggest headlines because Pereira is so good. Even, to me, this looked like both his worst and best performance in the UFC. How that is possible I don't know. It felt like he was not that sharp in the first rounds, he was knocked down once and looked a bit unstable dealing with Khalil. I had it tied after 2. That could be either my untrained eye thinking that he's not that sharp, thus the worst performance, or he was gauging range. Though in R3/4 Pereira was probably his best, getting the leg kicks to hit right, using the jab, and finally bringing up damage that no one can handle. The elevation and body shots surely gave Rountree a terrible time and I have respect for him standing and delivering for nearly 20 minutes with Poatan. Great fight. Legendary performances for both fighters.

So that's my FOTN, for sure.

Peña and Pennington was close, I picked Peña decision, but I didn't get the impression that she was winning and she was awarded a slightly controversial decision in my opinion. [though in the post-match stats, she appears to be leading in significant strikes, I would have guessed it to be Pennington].

It just gets awkward, the stand-up part of the fight had a lot of missed opportunities for both women. There was little to no takedown or control, but Peña had the edge for sure. On the other 135 matchup, Harrison was not as dominant as predicted and won a controlled decision. Kayla/Julianna is surely next but Pena called out Nunes instead of solidifying the next reasonable fight. [can we not wait another 2 years for Pena to fight, even if I don't like her attitude or personality, I'd prefer to keep things moving]


Meanwhile, Wonderboy's days are over as a gatekeeper, he's now nearly out of the rankings, time for some choice retirement fights... Buckley called out Usman, that's great.

Holland broke a rib, and Dolidze gets a TKO win.

Aldo suffered another controversial decision loss to Bautista [an American who was boo'ed in USA for beating Aldo, and getting a good judges card, funny ****]. The problem I have here is that Bautista said I'm gonna make it bleed and proceeded to lean on the cage. Sigh, some of these guys are all talk.

Esparza lost a decision in again, surprising judging, but she had a good final fight and people cheered her, which hasn't really happened lately. She was booed relentlessly as 2-time champ when she lost to Weili, on home soil. Bizarre, really. All of it.

Please no more -- the ref who reffed Almedia and Potieria should be fired immediately. Didn't warn for 4 eye-pokes, one low-blow all by Almeida, and continued to force them off the side of the cage after like 10 seconds to stand up fight. This isn't kickboxing or boxing, my dude.

Also, Court McGee copped a submission, his first in like 10 years. Insane if you picked that.