Alex Pereira Overcomes Adversity

At the conclusion of round 1 Rountree looked gassed. At that point you start to wonder how much longer can he keep that pace up. As the fight went on Rountree was effective but clearly started to fade. Rountree was up on all three of the judges’ scorecards 29-28 heading into the fourth.

The reckoning

Sensing that Rountree was fading, Pereira spent the early minutes of the fourth round allowing the challenger to exhaust what was left of his gas tank. Pereira calmly pressed forward and rocked Rountree with a right hand. The challenger went into survival mode and swung for the fences in hopes of catching Pereira with his power. But Pereira was both poised and relentless with his assault, bouncing a series of violent punches off Rountree’s face as the challenger staggered around the Octagon. That final flurry finished off Rountree. Pereira was victorious in his 3rd fight of the year, as he retained his light heavy weight title in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“This was one of my toughest fights. I expected that,” Pereira said. “The game plan was to let him tire. I saw he started decreasing his stamina in the second round. My stamina only goes up.”

What’s next for the champ?

Without a doubt Pereira is looking like the most indestructible force in the UFC. In the future a dream fight scenario against Jon Jones would be a fans dream. That will have to wait because Pereira seems very comfortable fighting at 205.

“We saw that Dricus was fighting Sean Strickland next,” he said. “He’s a training partner, and I don’t want to get in the way. I can move up to heavyweight, but this division is great, and this is where I’m at.”