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.”

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.

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.”

SALT LAKE CITY – Over the past three years, Alex Pereira has been one of the most active fighters on the promotion’s roster.

He’s also become one of combat sports’ biggest stars, and it’s quite possible his frequent competition has something to do with that. But even “Poatan” has his limits, as he found out during an adversity-filled UFC 307 camp.

From injuries to travel issues, various levels of uncertainty arose as he prepared for Saturday’s fight vs. Khalil Rountree at Delta Center.

Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) didn’t reveal any of the issues until after he defeated Rountree (14-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) with a brutal and bloodying Round 4 barrage.

“The fight was really tough but only my team knows how tough this camp really was,” Pereira told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “I went through a lot of stuff that nobody really knows about. I was in Brazil about a month ago. I had some problems with my visa. I was going over to the consulate every single day, trying to see if my passport was ready to be picked up. Finally, I made it back to the U.S. I spent about a week in Connecticut and have been here for three weeks. In the meantime, I was on antibiotics. I had a fever. I had a bad throat. A lot of things happened. Also going back, when I was in Brazil, I hurt my rib. It was an injury I had about a year ago and it came back. So that was also something I was dealing with.”

“When I came here, my throat was still bad. I went to the doctor and had another round of antibiotics. I even recorded a video at the time. I said in the video I would show it if I won. So we can put that out at some point. But I went through a lot. Also, the ligament in my toe that was hurt for UFC 300, that came back. So there were a lot of things I went through in this camp and it was a tough fight, but it was a tough lead up to this fight and I actually feel really proud of myself in this moment.”

A lack of rest between fights may have contributed to the string of injuries, illness, and mental struggles, Pereira admitted. Saturday’s fight was his tenth in the UFC in just under three years’ time.

For that reason, Pereira may take a rare break after this fight. He doesn’t want his “chama” to burn out. But does the training truly ever stop? Of course not.

“I think there is a limit,” Pereira sad. “I want to push myself as much as I can. I’m 37 and I want to take advantage of time. But I do need to take a break. I have some commitments in Mexico and Korea and Malta. I’m going to go hang out with Jorge (Guimarães) in Bali, my manager. We’re going to take Ed (Soares). I need to take some time off, but I’m going to be training.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.