Daniel Cormier: Alex Pereira Was Close to Pulling Out of UFC 307 During Fight Week

The
UFC 307 main event was close to being postponed.

Alex
Pereira (12-2) put his light heavyweight title on the line
against Khalil
Rountree (13-6) in the main event at UFC 307 at Salt Lake City,
Utah, on Oct. 5. While Rountree took Rounds 1 and 2 on the official
scorecards, Pereira put on a striking clinic as the fight
progressed to earn a fourth-round technical knockout victory.

Pereira subsequently revealed that aside from a tough test against
Rountree, he also had a grueling camp. “Poatan” dealt with visa
issues, a fever that needed antibiotics and lingering injuries
leading up to UFC 307. After his third successful title defense
within the shortest span in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history, he also plans to take
some time off.

Daniel
Cormier revealed that Pereira’s camp was troublesome enough to
jeopardize the UFC 307 headliner. After the fight, Pereira’s
manager and coach told “DC” that they had informed the UFC that
they might have to pull out even after arriving in Salt Lake City.
While it would be a major setback for the UFC, the promotion did
not put any pressure on Pereira, who is arguably its biggest star
in 2024. Had Pereira pulled out, the UFC reportedly planned to bump
up the co-headliner women’s bantamweight title fight between
Raquel
Pennington and Julianna
Pena to the main event.

“They told the UFC, ‘We’re going to go to Salt Lake [City], we’re
going to try to train, but we may pull out,” Cormier said on the
Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast. “The UFC said to him, ‘That would suck,
but let us know how it goes. Because we’ve two title fights, we’ll
elevate one of them if that’s what we need to do.”