Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information
and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and
portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into
the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories
behind those numbers.
* * *
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 7,577
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 683
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship held up its end of the bargain
with ESPN by putting on a fight card, and it overperformed relative
to expectations. Across the 13-fight showcase, underdogs sprang
several upsets while many grapplers landed impressive finishes.
UFC Fight Night 239 ended as a rare evening with multiple
technical submissions while featuring a record-breaker at 205
pounds and a mustachioed man tying a longstanding record held by
Anderson
Silva.
Tap ‘Em If You Got ‘Em: When the event ended, six fights ended by
way of submission. This total ties several other fight cards for
the fourth-most of any UFC event. UFCs 2, 4 and Fuel 10 hold the
joint record of eight apiece.
Apex Daze: Two of the six subs performed throughout the evening saw
the defeated fighter lose consciousness. This show is now one of 14
in company history to feature multiple technical submissions, and
the only card with three is UFC on ESPN 5.
Sleep Now: The only two fighters on the roster nicknamed “Bam Bam”
competed at UFC Fight Night 239:
Tai Tuivasa
and
Bryan
Barberena. Both men were rendered unconscious with
submissions.
Dom Cruz Called It: Late in the first round,
Marcin
Tybura put Tuivasa to sleep with a rear-naked choke. This
marked the first submission for the Polish heavyweight since 2014,
and it was only his
second
attempt in the Octagon—the first came against
Derrick
Lewis in 2018.
Still Hitting Upsets at This Age: Via split decision,
Ovince St.
Preux picked up his 15th win in the UFC’s light heavyweight
division. He is now tied for the third-most victories in divisional
history with
Ryan Bader.
Both trail
Glover
Teixeira (16) and
Jon Jones
(20).
Wisdom-Enhanced Substance: St. Preux has now made 25 appearances as
a 205-pounder in the promotion. This sets the new record for the
most fights in the history of the weight class.
Oss, OSP: Landing
143
significant strikes on
Kennedy
Nzechukwu, “OSP” nearly doubled his
personal
best of 76 across his UFC and
Strikeforce tenures—spanning 33 bouts to that
point.
Got You Again:
Macy
Chiasson rematched and submitted former foe
Pannie
Kianzad in the same way she won their previous 2018 meeting:
via rear-naked choke. The two submissions against Kianzad account
for two of Chiasson’s three career tapout victories.
A Good Streak to End: In losing by sub, Kianzad snapped a
nine-fight streak during which she heard the final bell every time.
This stretch encompassed the entirety of her second stint in the
UFC until this defeat.
Right Over the Jaw:
Gerald
Meerschaert throttled Barberena with a face crank and made him
pass out from the maneuver. His is officially the first technical
submission via face crank in UFC history, although not the first
among all major MMA promotions.
Yusuke
Yachi performed one in February against
Rikuto
Shirakawa at Rizin Landmark Vol. 8.
A Record on the Books Since 2012: By finishing Barberena,
Meerschaert tied the UFC middleweight record held by
Anderson
Silva for the most stoppage victories with 11.
How Very Gracie of You: Ten of Meerschaert’s 11 UFC wins inside the
distance have come via submission. His triumph further distances
him from the next closest fighter of
Brendan
Allen’s six. He is now the sixth fighter in organizational
history to land at least 10 submissions, joining
Royce Gracie,
Nate
Diaz,
Demian Maia,
Jim
Miller and
Charles
Oliveira.
Veteran with a Mustache: “GM3” entered his 20th fight as a
middleweight on the UFC roster when facing Barberena. He is now the
eighth fighter to reach this distinction, while being four
appearances behind divisional leaders
Michael
Bisping and
Brad
Tavares.
The Levy Was Dry:
Mike Davis
put
Natan Levy
away with an arm-triangle choke to push his win streak in the
Octagon to four. It marked the second submission of his pro career,
with his first a kimura of
Carlos
Guerra five years ago.
That Move Was Not Taught in the Bible:
Jafel Filho
wrangled
Ode
Osbourne with a rear-naked choke in the opening round to
improve his high finish rate to 94%. Seven of the Brazilian’s 10
submission victories have come via RNC.
How Very
Murilo
Bustamante of You: It took
Jaqueline
Amorim 98 seconds to tap
Cory
McKenna with an armbar, including a near-stoppage by referee
Mike Beltran. Her submission is the fourth-fastest in the UFC’s
strawweight division, and four of the seven subs in under two
minutes for the 115-pound division have come via armbar.
Don’t Sleep on Her Jitz: Amorim kept her finish rate at 100% with
her tapout of McKenna. Seven of her eight pro wins have taken place
in the opening frame.
Can’t Choke? Just Kick:
Thiago
Moises dispatched
Mitch
Ramirez with leg kicks early into the third round. The
Brazilian notched his first knockout since 2018 while claiming the
third leg kick stoppage in the UFC’s lightweight division.
Edson
Barboza performed the first two over
Mike Lullo
and
Rafaello
Oliveira.
Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC Fight Night 239,
Isaac
Dulgarian had never been defeated (six fights), Levy (nine
fights) and McKenna (10 fights) had never been finished and
Joshua
Culibao had never dropped consecutive bouts (14 fights).
I Break Tradition: In all 15 walks to the UFC cage, Tuivasa has
picked a unique walkout song that had often never been selected.
This time around, the Aussie went with
“Unwritten” by
Natasha Bedingfield, a first in the UFC for the song and artist
but he did not emerge victorious.
Dun Dun Dun-Dun: For the second time in a row, Amorim chose the
Pride Fighting Championships Theme composed by
Yasuharu Takanashi. Like her previous outing, the Brazilian picked
up a stoppage win.