UFC announces Alex Pereira's opponent for light heavyweight title

White announced several other fights on the card, too, including Roman Dolidze vs. Kevin Holland and Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson vs. Joaquin Buckley.

Pereira's third fight of the year will be his third straight pay-per-view headlining bout and fifth overall — all within the last two years. While he immediately became a star attraction upon becoming the UFC middleweight champion in 2022, the legend of "Poatan" grew even further from that point on, as Pereira would go on to become a two-division champion in 2023 and step up on short notice to save major events twice in 2024.

Rountree's heavy emphasis on his Muay Thai base against the kickboxing approach of Pereira sets up an intriguing style matchup. Entering his first title fight on a five-fight win streak, Rountree is coming off a third-round knockout of former title challenger Anthony Smith.

The fight will be the first of 2024 for Rountree, who was supposed to face former champion Jamahal Hill in the co-main event of UFC 303. Just weeks after that matchup was announced, the 34-year-old tested positive for illegal substances and was pulled from the fight before subsequently being suspended by the Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) for two months. His suspension period ended on July 4.

Historically, Rountree has typically fared well against kickboxing-based fighters. His career reached a new height in 2018 when he pulled off a significant upset by knockout out former GLORY Kickboxing world champion Gokhan Saki. Rountree followed up that success with succeeding wins over former kickboxer Dustin Jacoby and Karl Roberson.

While the matchup between Pereira and Rountree is undeniably interesting and one that fans should be able to get behind, it simultaneously continues the unorganized mess in the 205-pound division. While Rountree has not lost a fight since 2021, he has yet to beat a top-five contender and on paper, figured to be behind several other fighters for the next title shot, most notably Magomed Ankalaev.

UFC 307 is scheduled for Oct. 5 in the Delta Center, less than two months out from White's Friday announcement.