Chael Sonnen foresees an upset on the horizon at UFC 307.
A three-time UFC title challenger who nearly shocked the MMA world in his 2010 bout against Anderson Silva, Sonnen knows a thing or two about the power of being the underdog opposite a feared champion. And when he sees the setup for Alex Pereira’s next defense of his UFC light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307, Sonnen sees a perfect recipe for the kind of night that can turn the sport upside-down.
“First off, let me give you the hot take of the day. Khalil Rountree is going to walk through Pereira,” Sonnen said on Good Guy/Bad Guy. “That is the worst matchup [for Pereira] I could think of. Excuse me, this is [WWE] Smackdown invading Raw, and let me explain. When we think of who’s going to go fight for a title on pay-per-view, we think of other guys that have won a whole bunch of fights on pay-per-view. Well, Khalil was from Smackdown, he came from the other show. He’s been fighting on the Fight Nights and at the [UFC] Apex and things like this. He’s still won [five] in a row, he stopped [four] of those sons of a guns, and one of them is a former No. 1 contender, our good friend [Anthony] ‘Lionheart’ [Smith].
“We can’t just overlook Khalil. And I will tell you this because I don’t know how familiar you are or the rest of the fans are with Khalil, but he does his absolute best work when he’s being attacked by a kickboxer. It’s not Khalil swarming somebody or taking them down or submitting them. He is a counter fighter, and he loves when you punch or kick at him first. Khalil Rountree not only deserves this fight — and I’ll admit, I was surprised, I didn’t think this was the direction they were going to go — but I’ll tell you a problem, Khalil is going to win this fight.”
Pereira, 37, has already strung together what likely amounts to a Hall of Fame career in less than three years of time on the UFC roster. A former two-division champion in GLORY Kickboxing, Pereira captured the UFC middleweight title in just his fourth appearance in the promotion with a knockout of Israel Adesanya in 2022, then captured a second belt in just his seventh UFC appearance in 2023 by knocking out Jiri Prochazka at 205 pounds. Pereira is currently 4-0 at light heavyweight with a trio of knockout wins over former champions.
Following his second victory over Prochazka in June at UFC 300, many expected Pereira’s next title defense to come against top contender Magomed Ankalaev, however the opportunity was ultimately given to Rountree Jr., a well-traveled UFC veteran who capped off a five-fight win streak with a knockout of Anthony Smith in December. Rountree Jr. is no stranger to testing himself against former GLORY standouts — he owns UFC wins over kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki and Dustin Jacoby — yet he remains a significant betting underdog for his title challenge against Pereira. And Sonnen can’t quite understand why.
“The test [for Pereira] is once you are accepted, once the world does view you as the baddest man, and then you’ve got to fight No. 8. You’ve got to fight somebody where you’re going to be a 3-to-1 favorite, which is the current line and that’s probably going to move,” Sonnen said. “I’ll bet you it goes to 4-to-1 by the time these guys fight. When you find yourself in a match that’s harder than you thought it was going to be, you’ve got big problems.
“Mike Tyson used to make guys quit in the back. Cain Velasquez would have guys wilt in the back. Anderson Silva would make guys wilt in the back because they were so scared of what was going to happen. Pereira is entering that territory. I’m just sharing with you, Rountree is the wrong matchup. All those scary punches and kicks that Pereira does, that’s where Rountree does his finest work.
“This is a massive disaster for anybody that thinks the UFC is trying to protect Alex. If they’re trying to protect Alex, somebody just made a big mistake.”
UFC 307 takes place October 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
