Khalil Rountree’s pursuit of championship greatness came at the expense of some serious damage at UFC 307.

Rountree (13-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) made an unsuccessful bid at the light heavyweight title Saturday in a fourth-round TKO loss to Alex Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. He started the fight strong, but the champ took over as the rounds wore on until he forced the finish.

Although Rountree showed incredible toughness in surviving as long as he did, he didn’t get the result he wanted and now will have the war wounds to show for it.

UFC CEO Dana White showed a closeup of Rountree’s face both before and after he was stitched up backstage at UFC 307, and the scenes are gruesome (via Instagram Stories):

Khalil Rountree after UFC 307

Despite the way it all played out, Rountree was in high spirits after UFC 307. He made no excuses for falling short and said he relished the experience of fighting for a belt from beginning to end.

“My thought coming into this fight was just to be grateful,” Rountree said in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and everyone heard my story, but I was just really excited to come in here. I really just embraced the moment all the way up to this moment.

“I don’t think I was surprised at all. I thought I was going to be able to hit him a lot more. But he did a really good job at evading the punches and counter striking.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

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