Khalil Rountree Jr was left a bloody mess after he was stopped by in their light-heavyweight championship fight at UFC 307.
Rountree came into the fight off the back of five straight wins and dropped the champion in the second round. However, Pereira was able to recover and brutally dismantled Rountree until he finally finished him an uppercut in the fourth round.
The challenger was left disfigured by the amount of punishment he took from Pereira, with UFC president Dana White sharing a photo on showing Rountree with a big cut on his nose and another cut above his left eye which was swollen shut.
White captioned the photo: "Absolute f***in STUD Khalil Rountree". Speaking after the fight, Rountree said: "My thought coming into this fight was just to be grateful. I was really excited to come in here and I just embraced the moments.
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"I don't think I was surprised at all. I thought I was going to be able to hit him a lot more. He did a really good job of evading the punches."
Pereira, meanwhile, set a new record for the shortest amount of time between three consecutive UFC title defences. That record was previously held by Ronda Rousey, but Pereira has now successfully defended his title three times in only 175 days.
His run includes wins over former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka, but Pereira was quick to pay tribute to Rountree as well after his latest win. "I can say that this was one of the toughest fights," he said.
"I expected that. He showed tonight why he's got so much quality in here." Pereira has previously teased moving back down to middleweight to challenge for the title he previously won back in 2022 or moving up to heavyweight, but he now seems content with continuing to dominate the light-heavyweight division.
"We saw that Dricus [du Plessis] is going to be fighting Sean Strickland," Pereira said. "He's a training partner of mine, I don't want to get in his way. I can move up to heavyweight but this division is great. I feel great with this weight cut and this is where I'm at."
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