Alex Pereira brutally beats Khalil Rountree to defend light heavyweight crown at UFC 307

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Alex Pereira brutally knocked out Khalil Rountree Jr to continue his hot streak in the octagon at the Delta Centre in Salt Lake City.

Rountree provided the biggest challenge yet faced by Pereira as light heavyweight champion – but as the bout entered the championship rounds, an exhausted and bloodied Rountree could only take so much punishment, succumbing to defeat towards the end of the fourth.

The result means that Pereira has thwarted the latest attempt to swipe away his crown, with the Brazilian retaining his top spot as the king of the light heavyweight division in UFC 307’s main event.

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The four-round failure marks Rountree’s first outing since he served a four-month suspension for a failed drug test.

Undoubtedly, the ‘War Horse’ was keen to show his naysayers he was back with a vengeance, but it was not to be for the American fighter.

The fight ended in a fourth-round knockout thanks to a Pereira-special combination serve, which left Rountree bent over and struggling.

During the match, his challenger landed some clean shots on the champion early on, however, Pereira’s strikes were also finding their way home.

Towards the end of the second round, a Rountree hard-right briefly dropped Pereira.

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Pereira, however, remained his usual stoic self and started to exert control in the third round, with damage done to his opponent’s face and Rountree’s pace faltering.

In typical form, Pereira kept coming and the fight got uglier and bloodier.

In the co-main event, Julianna Pena reclaimed her throne at women’s bantamweight, defeating Raquel Pennington by split decision.

In her post-fight interview, Pena called on Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement to set up a trilogy bout, snubbing any insinuation that Kayla Harrison - who also emerged victorious on Saturday - was next in line for the belt.

Other star fighters in action included Jose Aldo against Mario Bautista, while fan favourite Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson also took to the cage in a star-studded featured prelim against Joaquin Buckley.

Additional reporting by PA