Alex Pereira and Raquel Pennington put their championships on the line Saturday in Salt Lake City.

The main and co-main event of UFC 307 are set to go with Pereira (205) and Pennington (135) both successfully making weight for their respective title defenses at Friday’s official weigh-ins. Pereira faces Khalil Rountree Jr., who also weighed in at 205 pounds, and Pennington takes on Julianna Peña in a long-awaited grudge match. Peña stepped to the scale at 134.5 pounds.

See weigh-in video for the top-2 fights below.

Possibly awaiting the winner of the bantamweight title fight is former PFL star Kayla Harrison, who weighed in at 136 pounds for her main card bout against Ketlen Vieira (136). After starting her career in the lightweight division, Harrison has now successfully hit the bantamweight mark twice, though both times she has used the one-pound allowance for a non-title fight.

Should Harrison defeat Vieira and earn a title shot, she will need to make 135 pounds or lower to be eligible for a championship opportunity.

All 24 fighters competing on Saturday’s card at Delta Center in Salt Lake City successfully made weight, including two-time strawweight champion Carla Esparza who has announced she will retire following her fight with Tecia Pennington.

Check out UFC 307 official weigh-in results below.

Main Card (ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET)

Alex Pereira (205) vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. (205)

Raquel Pennington (135) vs. Julianna Peña (134.5)

Jose Aldo (136) vs. Mario Bautista (136)

Ketlen Vieira (136) vs. Kayla Harrison (136)

Roman Dolidze (185.5) vs. Kevin Holland (185.5)

Preliminary Card (ESPNEWS/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET)

Stephen Thompson (171) vs. Joaquin Buckley (170.5)

Marina Rodriguez (115.5) vs. Iasmin Lucindo (116)

Cesar Almeida (185.5) vs. Ihor Potieria (185.5)

Austin Hubbard (156) vs. Alexander Hernandez (156)

Early Prelims (ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET)

Ryan Spann (205.5) vs. Ovince Saint Preux (205.5)

Carla Esparza (115.5) vs. Tecia Pennington (115)

Court McGee (170) vs. Tim Means (171)

Amandine Miquel is used to developing young talent and she is eager to do the same with Leicester City.

The Frenchwoman was appointed the club’s manager in July after seven seasons with Reims in her native France.

A 1-1 draw with Bristol City in the Women’s League Cup on Wednesday gave her an opportunity to test the club’s brightest young talent and it is clear she is pleased with what she saw.

Among them was 19-year-old winger Shana Chossenotte, who got on the scoresheet, as well as highly rated England youth international Ruby Mace, 21.

“Four or five from the academy could definitely start for the first team,” said Miquel, when asked on Friday about the squad depth she has available at Leicester.

On the same day, four of the club’s youngsters were called up to England’s Under-17 Women’s World Cup squad, with the tournament taking place this month.

Miquel will be without goalkeeper Rebekah Dowsett, defenders Nelly Las and Simone Sherwood, as well as forward Denny Draper.

But while Miquel is sad to lose them for a month, she is excited to see the talent pool being created within the club’s academy.

“It’s very good. I’m happy to share with England and wish that they go as far as they can in that competition,” added Miquel.

“For me, [developing young players is] the most important thing. I was a bit surprised when I saw the age of my team here, but I saw that I still have the youngest squad out of the 12 [WSL] clubs.

“I think that bigger teams, or ones higher up the table, tend to forget that they need to play. If you want to have a very good player at 18 or 19, she has to start playing at this level at 16. She should be around the team much more.

“We have four or five that can be in this group. When there are opportunities like this [in the League Cup], we will use them.”

SALT LAKE CITY – Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree are one step closer to throwing down in the octagon after making weight Friday for the UFC 307 main event.

Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will put light heavyweight gold on the line for the third time in 175 days when he takes on Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC)) in the headlining act Saturday at Delta Center (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).

Before they can step into the cage, both athletes needed to make weight. They did that at the UFC host hotel in Utah. Challenger Rountree was the first fighter to come to the scale during the one-hour official weigh-in session and was 205 pounds on the nose. Champion Pereira was the final fighter to weigh-in and registered at 205 pounds on the button to make the fight official.

Watch the video above to see Pereira and Rountree make weight for their UFC 307 title clash.

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

Dricus du Plessis vanquished his greatest rival at UFC 305 and now has a number of options ahead of him.

This past August, the middleweight champion scored a dramatic fourth-round submission of Israel Adesanya to put their feud on ice (for now), and has since been tied to a number of potential title challengers, including the winner of the UFC 308 clash between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev, a rematch with Sean Strickland, or even a superfight with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

Du Plessis’ coach Morne Visser told Submission Radio they are expecting a rematch, but it’s actually one with Whittaker, who du Plessis defeated at UFC 290. Strickland has been resolute in claiming he deserves another crack at du Plessis after dropping the title to him via a narrow split decision in their first meeting, but Visser thinks Strickland is still one win away.

“I had a conversation actually yesterday with Dricus,” Visser said (transcription via Denis Shkuratov). “I said to him, ‘There’s only one thing for certain at this stage, only one thing, and that’s that we’ve got to be ready to fight in Sydney in February.’ My opinion is Sean’s overselling it. He’s just had one win after Dricus, that was against [Paulo] Costa. Whittaker had two, and I think he’s going to go for number three now.

“So, my honest opinion is that next for us in line will be Whittaker in Sydney in February. I think he’s going to beat Khamzat, and I honestly think that they’re going to give him the shot.”

Chimaev is undefeated in 13 pro bouts, though his goal of becoming a champion at middleweight and welterweight has been stifled by grueling stretches of inactivity. When he steps into the cage to fight Whittaker on Oct. 26, it will be just his fourth fight since 2020.

Despite the buzz still swirling around Chimaev, Visser isn’t convinced he has the skills to beat the former UFC champion just yet.

“Rob’s a fast learner,” Visser said. “He learns out of his mistakes. He’s dead honest to himself. That’s very, very important in this sport. If you bullshit yourself, you’re in big, big shit. Even with Dricus, I mean, you guys haven’t seen the Dricus that I coach. People are really, really in shit the day when that Dricus rocks up in a fight night. The same thing goes for Rob. I think that Khamzat—I mean, that fight against [Kamaru] Usman, who’s a genuine welterweight, was way too close for me. His standup is, in my opinion, suspect, his wrestling, he couldn’t do anything with Usman. Rob’s standup is phenomenal. His wrestling and his ground work’s awesome. I honestly think Khamzat’s out of his league here. He’s got to go back to welter where he maybe stands a chance to become something or become a champion.

“At this stage, I honestly think it’s Rob. Rob beats Khamzat and I don’t think it’s going to be on points. He’s going to grind him. Rob’s a tough dude and he’s smart and he’s got a smart team behind him.”

One other matchup possibility Visser discussed was another fight with Adesanya. The loss to du Plessis put Adesanya on the first losing streak of his MMA career and he’s now lost three of his past four fights, but Adesanya’s performance against du Plessis, the intensity of their rivalry, and Adesanya’s Nigerian roots could still make for a compelling championship bout.

“I think that we will fight Izzy, and Dana is talking about it,” Visser said. “I think that the rematch that will be given to Izzy will be against Dricus, which makes the most sense to Africans in South Africa. I honestly think that we’re going to get the rematch against Izzy sometime next year in 2025.

“Also, you guys saw the Izzy that came out fighting for Dricus, and you saw the Izzy that went to fight Sean. The Izzy that faced Dricus came out to fight Dricus. Sean’s got no chance against that Izzy. That guy, he was the best version of Izzy I’ve ever seen. So if the UFC gives him the rematch, awesome, but I think that Izzy shouldn’t waste his time with shit like that. I think we all saw he’s a lot superior fighter with that Dricus fight.”

As for Pereira, Visser claims a bout with the Brazilian knockout artist was discussed on the evening of UFC 305 after du Plessis defeated Adesanya. However, they’re more interested in moving up to challenge Pereira for the light heavyweight title than seeing him drop back down to 185 pounds to challenge du Plessis.

Pereira recently stated his current plan is to remain at 205 pounds, so the point is moot for now. Should he and du Plessis ever face off, Visser is confident his fighter would come out on top—and not necessarily via the path most would expect.

“With wrestling and grappling, same as standup, it’s not something you can fix within six months or a year,” Visser said. “When you’re under pressure, your subconscious mind puts you back in what you know, and he knows kind of nothing when it comes to the wrestling and the grappling area. And that’s not where we want to fight him. We want to fight him where he’s good at.

“Dricus won’t be interested in fighting him on the floor. We would want to fight him in standup and in his standup game there’s a lot of flaws. I’ve seen him. He hates going backwards. He hates it. He hates it when you give him punishment. He hates it when you’re in control of the fight and that’s the way Dricus fights. He doesn’t want to fight. It’s not going to be we’re going to be on our back foot and give him his way. That’s the only time that he’s good. I’ve seen him on his back foot where he’s really, really shit. … This game, Dricus has been working at it forever. There’s no way you can fix becoming a wrestler or a grappler or a standup fighter within six months or a year. It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t happen like that.”

Ten Hag has won two trophies in two years at Old Trafford, but an impressive 2-1 victory against Manchester City in May’s FA Cup final proved vital to the Dutchman keeping his job.

Ten Hag ended the club’s six-year wait for silverware with victory against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final in his first season at the club, also achieving a third-place finish in the Premier League.

But his second season proved far more difficult as United, having been knocked out in the group stage of the Champions League, finished eighth in the league before ending on a high against City at Wembley.

The initial deal Ten Hag signed when he was appointed in 2022 was due to expire at the end of the current season, in 2025.

Following a review of the team’s performance across the 2023-24 season, which included speaking to potential replacements for Ten Hag, the club – led by Ratcliffe – decided to trigger an extension to keep the manager at Old Trafford until 2026.

But just 10 games into the campaign, with United 13th in the Premier League table and winless in Europe, speculation over his future is mounting – with a trip to high-flying Villa to come before October’s international break.