Khalil Rountree Jr. and Alex Pereira went to war at UFC 307. The challenger started strong, attacking the champ from the very first bell, throwing the kitchen sink at Pereira, clearly trying to knock him out. For about two rounds, until ‘War Horse’ got tired and was pieced up by ‘Poatan’.

The Brazilian champ mounted a battering counterattack in the third and fourth rounds, stopping ‘War Horse’ in the last thirty seconds of round four. Rountree Jr. definitely fell short and was totally outclassed by the champ in the latter half of the bout. But there are good losses and bad losses. The heroic courage and courage shown by ‘War Horse’ has established him as a badass and certainly earned him the respect of many many people.

But Michael Bisping doesn’t seem to be one of those people. On his YouTube channel, the UFC commentator called Pereira’s performance the best of his career, which, of course, had a lot to do with how tough of an opponent Rountree Jr. was.

However, what has rubbed some the wrong way was Bisping, somewhat crudely, called Rountree Jr. as much a threat to Pereira as ‘a mosquito’ or ‘a bothersome fly’, implying all of ‘War Horse’s powerful, bulldog-like attacks were essentially harmless to ‘Poatan’.

“Alex Pereira once again put on a stunning display of violence, probably his best performance yet, because he had to prove he could fight through a bit of adversity, he had to go to the later rounds. He had to be the hammer and the nail. But the reality is he was never really much of a hammer. Yeah he got hit a few times but he was never flustered, he was never bothered. He kept cool, calm, and collected, and the whole time was just waiting to pounce on Khalil Rountree,” Bisping said.

“Khalil, fair play, great effort going from zero to 100. Really quick to land shots and then was bouncing around the octagon like a little mosquito, more like a bothersome fly than a real threat to Pereira. Again that sounds insulting, I’m not being insulting. But Pereira was controlling the whole fight just by his sheer presence,” he added. This, of course, raises one very important question- is Michael Bisping right? There’s only one sure way to find out.

What do the stats say about Rountree Jr’s performance against Alex Pereira?

Khalil Rountree Jr. weaved a stellar narrative in the first round. He kept the champion in his tracks and perhaps did his best work of the fight in the opening round. All three judges, after all, scored it 10-9 in that round. Indeed, the California native threw almost twice as much as Pereira’s two previous opponents, both of whom have been former champions and excellent strikers.

Jiri Prochazka attempted twenty-five and successfully landed a pitiable seven of them on ‘Poatan’ at their UFC 303 rematch. Jamahal Hill attempted an even fewer twenty-two, landing a respectable twelve in the first round of his UFC 300 clash with Pereira. On the other hand, Rountree threw an impressive 42 significant shots in the first round, putting the champ under a type of relentless pressure that the Brazilian wasn’t at all used to. But surprisingly, despite how it looked from the outside, most of ‘War Horse’s flurries were ineffective. Of 42 attempted shots, ‘War Horse’ landed only ten in the first round.

The other side of this equation is even more surprising. It turns out that even though Pereira looked the worst in that very round, he actually landed fifteen significant shots, a full fifty percent more than Rountree Jr! This trend continued in the second round too with ‘Poatan’ landing 18 to Rountree’s 11 significant strikes.

But since ‘The War Horse’ was always on the attack in those rounds, the fans and all three of the judges gave those rounds to the challenger. But the stats tell a different story. Turns out Pereira’s victory was even more dominant than it seemed from the eye test.

The stats also unfortunately lend credence to ‘The Count’ characterizing Khalil Rountree Jr.’s performance at UFC 307 to a mosquito or a bothersome fly. But at least one with a lot of heart and a lion’s courage. What are your thoughts on Bisping’s take?