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While it takes intense training, world-class skills and maybe even a bit of luck to register a UFC win, picking the right song to accompany you to the cage is a key talent, as well.
See what the fighters from UFC 307 went with as their backing tracks in Salt Lake City. (fighters listed alphabetically).
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, that’s on you.
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What mattered most at UFC 307 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City? Here are a few post-fight musings …
* * * *
5
Happy trails, Carla Esparza
There wasn’t a much more fitting way for the fight between Carla Esparza and Tecia Pennington to end than a debatable decision.
The judges all saw it for Pennington (including a questionable 30-27), and a result former two-time UFC strawweight champion Esparza (19-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC) ended her MMA career in a somewhat frustrating manner.
An argument can be made Esparza should’ve gotten the nod, which would’ve made it an ideal final fight scenario. But MMA isn’t that giving, it seems, so this is what Esparza has to deal with. She took it well in the moment, embracing in the crowd applause and tearing up with Joe Rogan during her post-fight interview in an emotional moment. Then with her son Donovan in her arms wearing a cookie monster outfit, Esparza laid her gloves down in the center of the cage and left.
The amount of times we’ve questioned MMA retirements in this column over the years is otherworldly. But for this one? I have no doubts. Esparza has been concrete in her retirement decision from the moment she announced it more than two months ago, and it’s nice to see she can go out on her terms.
No matter how you feel about Esparza’s style of fighting, you cannot deny her success in the sport. She won “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, was a two-time divisional champ and has her name all over the record books for her body of work.
Finally, Esparza is a genuinely nice person from all my experiences over the years. It has been a privilege to cover her career and the access she’s provided along the way, and hopefully the UFC will eventually honor her with a well-deserved spot in the UFC Hall of Fame.
4
Joaquin Buckley breaks through
Joaquin Buckley needed a signature win to beef up his resume so he could call for the biggest fights in the welterweight division, and he got it with a third-round knockout of Stephen Thompson.
The fight wasn’t going perfect for Buckley (21-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) to the point of the finish. “Wonderboy” was doing well with counter striking and getting up from takedowns, but it also felt like Buckley’s power was a ticking time bomb. It finally went off with less than three minutes left on the clock, and Buckley is now 5-0 since he dropped to 170 pounds from middleweight.
After the fight, Buckley effectively used his microphone time with Rogan and called out Kamaru Usman. It’s a great callout, but he might not get it. Welterweight is stacked right now and everyone is gunning for Usman thinking he’s on the downfall with a three-fight losing skid. Maybe he is? But only one person is going to be the next to help give us those answers.
At worst, Buckley put his name in the hat to be considered for that matchup, which would likely be a title eliminator for him.
3
Was Jose Aldo robbed?
Mario Bautista achieved the biggest moment of his career when his hand was raised by split decision against UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo to extend his winning streak to seven fights in the bantamweight division. Unfortunately for him, no one outside those close to him seemed to like it.
That goes especially for the Salt Lake City crowd, who showered Bautista (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) with boos during his post-fight interview and sullied his moment. Did he deserve that? It’s hard to say, honestly. It was a close fight. It seemed to be tied going into the final round, and the boxing effectiveness of Aldo (32-9 MMA, 14-8 UFC) was certainly understated by the commentary team.
I’ve said so many times in this column that we can’t call close fight robberies. I’ve made exceptions over the years, but honestly, this isn’t one. Our love of Aldo leads to an inherently skewed view, and although Bautista didn’t do much to hurt him, he has just as good an argument going the other way to win.
Aldo still looked good, though, and although this was a major hit in his title aspirations during this post-retirement comeback run, there’s still lot of compelling fights at 135 pounds for “The King of Rio” going forward.
2
The future of women’s bantamweight takes shape
The UFC 307 main card essentially featured a four-woman tournament to set the foundation of for the women’s bantamweight division.
Things opened up with Kayla Harrison (18-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) doing her part by getting the unanimous decision win over Ketlen Vieira, but it wasn’t as impressive as she promised it would be going in. She was cut open for the first time courtesy of some nasty elbows from Vieira, but the two-time Olympic gold medalist showed the will to win and got her hand raised.
Then in the title-fight co-headliner, Julianna Peña (11-5 MMA, 8-2 UFC) created the ideal scenario for the future of the weight class when she reclaimed the belt – even if it was a robbery split decision in the eyes of many over Raquel Pennington.
Peña flubbed setting up the most intrigue going forward by declining to acknowledge Harrison and create more heat and instead challenge Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement for a trilogy. I understand why she did that, but it’s a bit frustrating, as well.
I wouldn’t blame Nunes one bit if she saw Peña’s performance and decided to come back. That seems like a big payday against an opponent she’s already dismantled. But if Nunes wants to do best by the weight class, she would let Peña and Harrison fight it out to set up the biggest comeback possible.
1
Alex Pereira further solidifies legend status
Alex Pereira entered his name in the conversation for single greatest year by any MMA fighter of all time when he defended his light heavyweight title for the third time in 175 days against Khalil Rountree.
Pereira has been the UFC’s saviour this year by stepping up to headline cards when the promotion needed him most, and he once again came through when he stopped Rountree by fourth-round TKO.
Rountree’s hot start in the fight created drama and intrigue, but Pereira’s methodical attack ultimately made the outcome a bludgeoning in his favor. The entire circumstances of this win only became more impressive in the post-fight press conference when “Poatan” revealed a litany of struggles he had to endure to get in the octagon and have his hand raised.
Pereira is no doubt the 2024 Fighter of the Year after this stretch. Some will say the winner of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway at UFC 308 later this month has a case. They do, in fairness. But it’s not strong enough. What Pereira has done this year will not be repeated frequently going forward, and the fact he finished every fight in his path only adds weight to this.
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.
Khalil Rountree Jr. came up short at UFC 307, but he didn’t take for granted the long path he took to get there.
In Saturday’s main event at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Rountree went toe-to-toe with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira before eventually succumbing to strikes in Round 4. Though Rountree was covered in blood by the end of the bout, he gave the former kickboxing star a run for his money in the striking department, and afterwards he told Joe Rogan that his mood wasn’t dampened by the loss.
“My thought coming into this fight was just to be grateful, really,” Rountree said in his post-fight interview. “I’ve been doing all this for a long time and everybody heard my story, but I was just really excited to come in here, and I really just embraced the moment all the way up until this moment.”
“No, I don’t think I was surprised [by Pereira’s striking] at all,” Pereira continued. “I thought 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 counter-striking.”
Before Rountree could finish his thought, he had to blow a bloody stream of snot out to clear his nose. The gruesome gesture was a fitting exclamation point for one of the most violent fights of 2024.
Rountree, who went from Ultimate Fighter finalist to UFC title challenger over an eight-year stretch, had nothing but love for the crowd in Salt Lake City and vowed to compete in Utah sometime in the future.
“I’ll never forget this training camp my whole life,” Rountree said. “You guys have been so f*cking awesome. I would love to come back anytime, train at altitude, fight here again, I love you guys. I swear to God I’ll be back one day.”
Marie Hobinger scores a “brilliant” free-kick to put Liverpool 2-1 up against Tottenham in their WSL match at Gaughan Group Stadium.
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Stephen Thompson has been knocked out twice in his MMA career – both by the same style of strike.
An overhand right has proved to be an enemy for Thompson (17-8-1 MMA, 12-8-1 UFC), who was knocked out by Joaquin Buckley (17-7-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC) throwing it Saturday at UFC 307. The welterweight bout took place at Delta Center in Salt Lake City and ended at 2:17 of Round 3.
“I just got back to the hotel,” Thompson said in a video posted to social media shortly after the loss. “I don’t even know how I got here. But again, I get knocked out by an overhand. Once by (Anthony) Pettis, either on the cage or off the cage. It is what it is.
“… Not much to say other than I sincerely appreciate all of the love and support I felt from the fans tonight and always the love you’ve shown me really fills my heart. The roar of the crowd as I walked out to the cage and my name was announced is something I’ll cherish forever. I’m sorry I didn’t get it done tonight. Much love to you all and much love to SLC.”
Not much to say other than I sincerely appreciate all of the love and support I felt from the fans tonight and always 🙏🏻❤️ the love you’ve shown me really fills my heart. The roar of the crowd as I walked out to the cage and my name was announced is something I’ll cherish… pic.twitter.com/nNg5XoLL53
— Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (@WonderboyMMA) October 6, 2024
Thompson, 41, has lost four of his most recent five outings, but hadn’t been finished with strikes since a March 2019 knockout loss to Anthony Pettis.
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.
Kayla Harrison spent the first 17 fights of her career with the PFL, but her defection to the UFC led to a social media post on Saturday highlighting the only loss she’s ever suffered.
Just before Harrison defeated Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307, the PFL posted a short video detailing her decision loss to Larissa Pacheco back in 2022 while also promoting its upcoming pay-per-view event on Oct. 19 in Saudi Arabia. While UFC CEO Dana White didn’t actually see PFL’s post about Harrison, he didn’t seem all that surprised by the maneuver.
“I think when you’re losing as much money as they are, f*cking go for it,” White said at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference. “F*cking throw the kitchen sink at it.”
White has rarely held his tongue when discussing the PFL but especially when the upstart promotion decides to take aim at the UFC.
Another comment that White jumped on when addressing the PFL was a recent remark from co-founder Donn Davis when he stated that the organization was spending more money on the upcoming PPV headlined by Francis Ngannou than the UFC spent producing the recent UFC 306 card at Sphere in Las Vegas.
White famously documented the high cost to put on a show there with expenditures reaching more than $20 million by the time it was all said and done.
“This guy [Donn Davis] just came out recently and said ‘you know we’re going to spend more money than they did on the Sphere.’ That sounds f*cking brilliant,” White said. “How many tickets are you going to sell? They’re not very bright.”
Of course there’s no doubt that the UFC remains the biggest promotion in all of MMA but White couldn’t help himself when pointing out the financial shortcomings of his competitors.
That’s why he wasn’t all that surprised by the move from PFL on Saturday when it came to taking aim at a former star in Harrison, who now calls the UFC home.
“Listen, it’s all fair,” White said. “They’re drowning. They suck. They’re not good at what they do. I guess you would just keep trying anything you can to make something stick. All good.”
Liverpool’s Cornelia Kapocs’s “incredible” strike puts the Reds 1-0 up against Tottenham during their WSL clash at the Gaughan Group Stadium.
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