UFC 307 takes place this Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, featuring two title fights and 10 other marquee matchups. In the main event, Alex Pereira puts his light heavyweight title on the line against Khalil Rountree Jr., and in the co-main event, women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington makes the first defense of her belt against former champion Julianna Peña. Let dive into which bouts are worth betting on this weekend.
Let’s start with the downsides of this bet: Peña has not fought in two years, she hasn’t won a fight in nearly three years, and she doesn’t have any victories over fighters currently competing in the UFC. That’s not great!
However, Peña does have two very important things working in her favor. First, she’s a good grappler and wrestler. Pennington is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades but historically, one of the most successful strategies against her has been scoring takedowns, as Pennington isn’t a threat off her back.
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Second, Peña is tougher than advanced algebra and has absolutely zero quit in her. If something doesn’t work, she will doggedly keep trying it until it does work. That sort of relentless effort makes her a more effective striker than she should be, and should play into her hands in the championship rounds of this fight.
Ultimately, this is a coin flip fight since Pennington is good but not incredible, and so there’s value on Peña.
Jose Aldo is one of the six greatest fighters of all time. Mario Bautista is a very good fighter, but the ocean of distance between “very good” and “Pantheon level” is vast. Even at his advanced age, Aldo is still a master and creating the fight he wants. More to the point, he’s one of my favorite fighters of all time and I’m always going to back him to win.
Harrison faces Ketlen Vieira on the main card in a matchup that is more or less a setup fight to get Harrison to the bantamweight title.
Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka and a physical force of nature. If Vieira could keep this fight on the feet, she’d stand a chance. But she simply will not be able to do that against Harrison meaning the question is whether or not Harrison can get the finish. Vieira has proven very durable in her career but this version of Harrison is a different beast and I think she gets the statement finish.
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Parlays
There’s nothing I love more than a gimmick parlay and there are two prime opportunities this week. The first is the Pennington Parlay, which I’m passing on given my support of Peña this week. The second is the Glory Parlay.
Pereira is a famously a two-division Glory Kickboxing champion, where he (less) famously had a rivalry with Cesar Almeida. Now the two men are in the UFC and train together under Glover Teixeira, and are heavy favorites at UFC 307.
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Alex Pereira (-506)
As far as the actual fight goes, I wrote a big breakdown over on SB Nation, so you should check that out, but the short version is that Pereira is most likely going to clobber anyone who willingly engages in a kickboxing match with him, which is what Rountree is going to do.
Cesar Almeida (-400)
And on the prelims, that same dynamic takes places when Almeida takes on Ihor Potieria, the man who famously ended Shogun Rua’s MMA career. This is basically an off-brand version of the main event, and the outcome should be similarly expected.
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Parlay these two bets together for -212 odds
Wrap Up
UFC Pariswas a mixed bag. We spiked a big underdog in calling Renato Moicano’s win, but lost everything else which is obviously less than ideal. Let’s hope we do better this weekend,
Until next week, enjoy the fights, good luck, and gamble responsibly!
All information in this article is provided to readers of MMA Fighting for entertainment, news, and amusement purposes only. It is the responsibility of the reader to learn and abide by online gambling laws in their region before placing any online sports betting wagers.
BBC Sport looks back at some great Premier League goals scored from a variety of distances – from a Cristiano Ronaldo tap-in to Asmir Begovic’s record-breaking 101-yard strike.
MMA Fighting has UFC 307 results for the Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. fight card, live blogs of the main card, and more from the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday night.
In the main event, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira puts his belt on the line against Khalil Rountree Jr. Pereira, who has won four fights in a row, makes his third title defense. Rountree Jr. has won five straight fights.
UFC bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington puts her belt on the line against former UFC champion Julianna Peña in the co-main event.
SALT LAKE CITY – Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree have handled their final bit of business before sharing the octagon at Friday’s UFC 307 ceremonial weigh-ins.
After making weight earlier in the day, current champion Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) and first-time challenger Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) got a last look at each other with a staredown in front of fans and media and the world watching online.
Pereira will attempt to make history with the shortest stretch between three successful title defenses after winning in April and July. Rountree, meanwhile, will look to make the most of his opportunity as an unexpected presence in a fight for the belt.
Check out the video above to see the final Pereira vs. Rountree staredown ahead of the UFC 307 headliner.
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UFC 307 takes place Saturday at Delta Center. The main card airs on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
Grant Dawson takes umbrage with people labelling him as boring.
Dawson (21-2-1 MMA, 9-1-1 UFC) takes on Rafa Garcia (15-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) in a lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night 244 Oct. 12 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Outside from a 33-second upset knockout loss to King Green in the UFC Fight Night 229 headliner last October, Dawson is unbeaten in the UFC. Not only is he unbeaten, but he’s been able to use his wrestling to dominate plenty of his opposition – most recently Joe Solecki at UFC 302 in June.
Despite his prowess on the ground, Dawson hasn’t gained the popularity as a surging lightweight like he would have wished.
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“I’m trying to be more exciting, I really am,” Dawson told MMA Junkie Radio. “It’s just I’m so dominant on the ground, it’s so easy for me to take people down, ride them out, get the choke, land lots of punches, make my percentage of top time even farther away from everybody else in the division than it already is.
“It’s so easy for me to do that. It’s hard for me to be, like, in a fight: Somebody’s throwing leather at my face, and me be like, ‘Nah, I’m not going to take them down, the fans want to see me knock him out.’ I’m fighting for my life in there. I’m fighting for my wife to not have to go back to work. It’s hard for me not to take somebody down when I know I can do it.”
Dawson says if UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev can become a fan favorite with an elite wrestling style, then why can’t he get some love as well.
“The thing that upsets me the most about it is probably, they’re so picky on who they like and who they don’t, and what kind of style they are,” Dawson continued. “Everybody thinks that Islam Makhachev is the coolest thing since sliced bread, but he’s doing the same stuff I’m doing.
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“But then when I go ride somebody out – literally in my last fight I had 13:45 of control time in a 15-minute fight. That’s insanity. Where, exactly, do you have to give up being dominant to be a bit more exciting? I don’t really know what these guys want to see. I’m just going to keep winning.”
Sorensen said Everton had also analysed factors influencing player injuries after the club endured an injury-plagued 2023-24 season.
“We take everything into consideration and make sure, especially with this small squad, we need people healthy. That’s the aim. A big blow but nothing we can do about it,” he said.
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“We have to look forward to the squad we have and keep them as healthy as we can because we can’t afford losing more.”
Everton, who travel to Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal on Sunday, have yet to score a league goal this season and sit second from bottom in the WSL table.
Despite the poor start to the 2024-25 campaign and losing Gabarro and Galli to ACL injuries, Sorensen said his squad have “handled it really well”.
“The group is quite resilient after all the injuries we had. Its not ideal but that’s the way it is in football,” he said.
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“We can’t start not going 100% into everything we do, whether it’s a tackle or a duel. We have to do 100, otherwise what’s the point. We have to have that mentality as a team, and the girls agree.”
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