Khalil Rountree Jr. reacts to Alex Pereira claiming his hands still hurt, a month after UFC 307 win

Alex Pereira is known as 'Poatan', which translates to "Stone Hands" in his native language of Tupi. This is especially apt as the UFC light-heavyweight champion has fists that put away nearly every man he's ever faced inside the octagon.

Perhaps another word to describe him is "Toughness" as the Brazilian striker apparently suffered a broken hand in his clinical dismantling of Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307 last month. It didn't seem like the champion was suffering any sort of pain in his hands as he repeatedly battered his American foe to a TKO finish.

Pereira spoke about it in an appearance in Podpah on YouTube, which was posted by ESPN on Instagram:

In the podcast, Alex Pereira said (translated):

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"That fourth round, I was throwing jabs and hurting my hand. I was thinking, 'My hand must be broken.' It still hurts. Not all the time, no. But if I squeeze here, it hurts."

Rountree Jr. commented on the post with a single emoji - perhaps the best emoji to describe what it felt like to get punched by 'Poatan':

Khalil Rountree Jr's comment. [Image credit: @espnmma on Instagram]

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Khalil Rountree Jr. impressed by Alex Pereira's fight IQ after UFC 307

Although it was his cinderblocks for fists that put Khalil Rountree Jr. away at UFC 307, it was Alex Pereira's high fight IQ that truly impressed his challenger that night. Just days after getting beaten by the champion, Rountree Jr. appeared on the Pound 4 Pound podcast.

Despite being able to push 'Poatan' unlike any other challenger to his belt before, Rountree Jr. was humble and gracious in defeat and provided some candid insights on the fight. With cuts on his face and a huge bandage on his nose, Rountree said of Pereira's fight IQ:

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"I think one thing that is pretty underrated and [that] I got to experience for myself is really his [fight] IQ, man. The ability to mix up, you know, the strategy mid-fight and in-between rounds because...he just kept making adjustments. And I think he made really smart adjustments...I'd say the biggest surprise for me was the intelligence, as stoic as he is and kind of stone-faced, I do think he's got a smart brain, that's for sure."

Check out his comments here:

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