In case you haven’t heard, Salt Lake City has a new nickname.
“Head Shot City” was coined by MMA fans after each of the UFC’s last two trips to Utah ended with a fighter winning a title bout with a knockout kick to the head.
UFC returns to the Delta Center Saturday for a third consecutive year, and the evening’s main event (8 p.m., PPV) has a chance to live up to the city’s new moniker.
Three-time light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will try to defend his title for the third time in 175 days when he faces No. 8 ranked Khalil Rountree Jr. in the co-main event.
Both fighters are knockout specialists, with Pereira winning each of his last three matches by knockout, and Rountree winning four of his last five by knockout.
Jose Aldo, a veteran UFC competitor who will fight Mario Bautista in a bantamweight bout earlier in the evening, even compared the title fight to an old Western duel.
“Looking at this fight on Saturday, we’re talking about two snipers. It looks like a duel with a shootout,” Aldo said through a translator during Wednesday’s downtown press conference. “They turn their backs to each other, walk 10 steps, turn around and shoot. That’s what we’re going to see.”
It’s a fitting analogy for an event held in Utah, even if Salt Lake City’s grown from a sleepy western town to what UFC CEO Dana White dubbed in 2022 a “global destination in the world” capable of hosting MMA’s most prestigious league.
The epic fights in the previous two visits certainly bode well for the relationship between the UFC and Utah.
Utah Sports Commissioner Jeff Robbins said Wednesday that Leon Edward’s devastating head kick to knock out Kamaru Usman and take the welterweight title at UFC 278 in 2022 earned nearly $900 million in estimated media value for UFC and SLC.
And return trips to the Beehive State also mean it’s a place many fighters featured in Saturday’s card are familiar with.
Pereira and Aldo, fellow Brazilians, both fought at UCF 291 at the Delta Center last year. In fact, it was there where Pereira, 37, fought his first match at light heavyweight, defeating Jan Blachowicz by split decision and kick-starting his campaign to become one of the biggest names in the game.
Aldo, 38, lost his fight to Merab Dvalishvili by decision, but remembers the arena atmosphere fondly and believes Salt Lake City has a strong fighting fanbase.
“It’s a city that’s ready to get more and more events,” Aldo said.
Rountree, who trains out of Las Vegas, will compete in Salt Lake City as a UFC fighter for the first time. He is spending his fight camp in Park City acclimating to the elevation.
“I wanted to make sure that I was as prepared as I can be,” Rountree said. “So I came up very early … It’s beautiful. Salt Lake City and Park City, it’s in my top 10 favorite places in the world and I’ve been to a lot of places.”
Saturday’s co-main event also features a title bout between two fighters familiar with western United States ties. Bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington trains out of Colorado Springs, while No. 1 ranked contender Julianna Peña is from Spokane.
Despite being from nearby, the past few days have been Pennington’s first proper taste of the Utah fighting scene.
“I didn’t realize the amazing fans out here,” Pennington said. “I’m so excited for the energy that’s going to come out of it and it just so happens to fall close to home so that my entire family is going to be there.”
The action from the Delta Center begins with seven preliminary matches, including a welterweight battle between Orem native Court McGee, who won The Ultimate Fighter season 11, and Tim Means.
The main card kicks off with No. 10 ranked Roman Dolidze and No. 15 ranked Kevin Holland in a middleweight bout, followed by a women’s bantamweight fight between No. 2 ranked Ketlen Vieira and No. 3 ranked Kayla Harrison.
No. 10 ranked Aldo suits up against No. 11 ranked Bautista, then the main event begins, starting with Pennington and Peña and followed by Pereira and Rountree.
