By the Numbers: UFC Fight Night 221

When it comes to nicknames, perhaps no fighter currently has a more fitting moniker than Merab Dvalishvili.

The Georgian known as “The Machine” was relentless in the UFC Fight Night 221 headliner, setting an Ultimate Fighting Championship record for takedown attempts in a unanimous decision triumph over former bantamweight champion Petr Yan at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Normally, such a victory would cement Dvalishvili as the clear-cut No. 1 contender at 135 pounds. However, with teammate Aljamain Sterling still atop the division, things are more complicated in this case.

Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 221, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.

49: Takedowns attempted by Dvalishvili, obliterating the previous record of 33 set by Cain Velasquez against Junior dos Santos at UFC 155. Dvalishvili landed just 11 of those attempts, but the constant threat of the takedown kept Yan off balance in other aspects of the fight. Yan, meanwhile, landed one of his five takedown attempts.

.0169: Takedown success rate for Dvalishvili in his last two UFC bouts, unanimous decision victories over Yan (11 for 49) and Jose Aldo (0 for 16).

147: Significant strikes landed by Dvalishvili, the most of his UFC career. By comparison, Yan landed 75 significant strikes. Dvalishvili outlanded his opponent 22 to 13 in Round 1, 35 to 18 in Round 2, 15 to 8 in Round 3, 38 to 21 in Round 4 and 37 to 15 in Round 5.

8: Consecutive bantamweight victories in UFC competition for Dvalishvili, tying him with teammate and reigning champ Aljamain Sterling for the longest winning streak in the history of the division. Dvalishvili’s overall winning streak is nine, but one of those triumphs occurred at a catchweight.

1-4: Record for Yan since 2021. That dates back to the Russian’s disqualification defeat to Sterling at UFC 259.

27: Total strikes landed by Alexander Volkov in a shutout victory over Alexander Romanov in the heavyweight co-main event. The former Bellator champ stuffed all five of his opponent’s takedown tries, while Romanov only attempted one strike in the bout, which ended via TKO at the 2:16 mark of Round 1.

13: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 17 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the bantamweight bout between Said Nurmagomedov and Jonathan Martinez in favor of Nurmagomedov. Judges Michael Bell, Adalaide Byrd and Junichiro Kamijo saw things differently, as all three submitted 29-28 tallies for Martinez.

101: Total strikes landed by Nurmagomedov. By comparison, Martinez landed 78. Nurmagomedov also held a 47-to-38 edge in significant strikes landed. Nurmagomedov secured the only three takedowns of the fight, while Martinez logged 6:09 of control time compared to 4:21 for his opponent.

12: Combined takedowns landed by Vitor Petrino (7 for 9) and Anton Turkalj (5 for 15) in their lightweight tilt. Petrino earned a unanimous decision triumph as he executed four reversals, attempted one submission and logged 6:13 of control time.

8: Takedowns landed in 13 attempts for Karl Williams in a three-round verdict over Lukasz Brzeski at heavyweight. Williams enjoyed 10:13 of control time and also held a 120-to-49 edge in total strikes landed in the bout.

4: Inverted triangle choke submission finishes in UFC history after Davey Grant used the maneuver to dispatch Raphael Assuncao in the third round of their bantamweight encounter. The Englishman joined Cole Miller, Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Jordan Leavitt as the only fighters to end a fight in the Octagon using the move.

3:44:19: Total Octagon time for Assuncao, who on Saturday surpassed Urijah Faber (3:40:33) for the No. 1 spot in UFC bantamweight history.

.720: Significant striking accuracy for Assuncao, who landed 42 of 58 attempts in a typically efficient performance. Grant was less accurate but had the edge in volume, as he landed 65 of 138 significant strikes for a 47 percent clip. Grant also had the fight’s only knockdown.

154: Significant strikes landed by Victor Henry in a split-decision triumph over Tony Gravely at bantamweight. By comparison, Gravely landed 75. Henry set a high pace on the feet and did some of his best work in Round 2, when he outlanded his foe by a 71-to-17 margin in significant strikes.

17: Takedowns attempted by Gravely. He was only successful on three of those tries — a 17 percent success rate.

52: Significant strikes by which Ariane Lipski outlanded J.J. Aldrich in their women’s flyweight clash. That total included a 42-to-4 edge in significant body strikes — many of which were knees in the clinch.

12: Takedowns defended, in 12 attempts, by Lipski.

5: Knockdowns for Bruno Silva in his last three UFC appearances. The Brazilian flyweight floored Tyson Nam with a front kick to the chin in the second round of their preliminary bout, setting the stage for a rear-naked choke victory.

3: Consecutive finishes for Silva. In addition to Nam, Silva has stopped Victor Rodriguez and J.P. Buys after going winless in his first three promotional appearances.

9:25: Control time for Carlston Harris over the final two rounds against short-notice foe Jared Gooden. Harris also landed five of 10 takedowns during that period to earn a unanimous decision triumph at welterweight.