Alex Pereira stops Khalil Rountree Jr. to defend title

UFC light heavyweight world champion Alex Pereira made a third successful defense of his title following a fourth-round technical knockout over Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event of UFC 307 on Sunday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City in Utah.

Rountree came out swinging while Pereira remained calm and threw his jab and patented leg kicks. Early on, Rountree wanted to land a big left straight on top, but Pereira often only needed to step back to avoid the big punch.

In Round 2, Rountree repeatedly tried to land his left hand but was starting to get timed by Pereira. With over a minute left in the stanza, Rountree landed a right hook that momentarily stunned Pereira.

Rountree lost steam after three rounds of back-and-forth action. In Round 4, Pereira managed to stun Rountree with jabs and had him bloodied from a series of punches on top.

With Rountree tired and unable to throw his punches with the same sting, Pereira went for the kill by throwing a barrage of punches to the head and body that dropped the former, prompting the referee to halt the contest at the 4:32 mark of Round 4.

"I can say that this was one of the toughest fights. I expected that. He showed tonight he has so much quality," Pereira said after the fight.

A two-division world champion in the world's premier mixed martial arts promotion, Pereira improved his MMA record to 12-2 while Rountree dropped to 14-6.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News