UFC 307 crashed last night (Sat., Oct. 5, 2024) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah Alex Pereira retain his light heavyweight title by retiring Khalil Roundtree with a severe punishment in the fourth round (here again). In the co-main event Julianna Pena became women's bantamweight champion again after narrowly defeating the now former champion. Raquel Penningtonby separate decision.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Biggest winner: Alex Pereira

“Poatan” had a bit of a slow start (by his standards) in his main event against Rountree, being overtaken and dropped early on, but eventually finding his rhythm. As the third round came, Pereira began to find his range and began teeing off on Rountree, who was a complete mess in the fourth round, although he refused to back down and showed a lot of heart before the champion tagged him with a few body punches taking him out for the count. This is now Pereira's third consecutive title defense, adding to his ever-impressive resume and legacy that includes five straight wins, four of which were by KO/TKO. He vowed to stay at 205 pounds for now, but an interim fight for the heavyweight title is coming up Tom Aspinall Definitely sounds tempting.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Runner-up: Julianna Pena

Look, it wasn’t a dominant win, but at the end of the day it was a championship win for “The Venezuelan Vixen.” And it wasn't easy, as Pennington had her shining moments and made it difficult for Pena to reclaim her title. It could have gone either way, but Pena did enough on the judges' scorecards to once again reach the top of the sport. Perhaps just as important, however, is that she's likely secured a major title shot Kayla Harrisonwho won against earlier in the night Ketlen Vieira. And yes, even though Pena is still trying to lure Amanda Nunes out of retirement.

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Honorable Mention: Joaquin Buckley

Don't look now, but Buckley is on his way to his first-ever top-10 finish after outpointing Stephen Thompson in the third and final round of their 170-pound bout (see again here). It was “New Mansa's” fifth straight win – three by knockout – in the Octagon, one of the better recent winning streaks in the division. A few more impressive wins like this and don't be too surprised if you hear his name in the championship conversation.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Biggest loser: Stephen Thompson

At some point you begin to wonder whether a fighter has lost a step or three and whether he/she will ever return to the form that made him/her important. Once known as a punching machine who could knock down a block with his dangerous karate kicks, Thompson has looked anything but that over the last three years, losing four of his last five fights, and his last two including his knockout defeat at the hands of Joaquin Buckley. He will easily fall out of the top 10, which probably should have happened a while ago, and he will probably never get the big fights in the future. That doesn't mean he can't change things, but the 41-year-old has a difficult road ahead if he wants to do that. Maybe the promotion wasn't so wrong to put him on the undercard?

For complete UFC 307 results, coverage and highlights click here HERE.