Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 137
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.
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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 452
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday made its pilgrimage to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the sixth year in a row. UFC Fight Night 137 featured one of MMA’s most dominant submission artists surpassing a legend’s record, a couple of longtime organizational standouts saying goodbye and one fighter taking the dubious honor of the most consecutive losses.
FILLING THE RANKS: UFC Fight Night 137 contained
14 fights from start to finish, tying it for the most in modern
Ultimate Fighting Championship history with UFC on Fox 29. Only UFC
2 in 1994 had more fights on the card with 15.
ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM: Brazilians started off the night winning six straight fights, although one was between two Brazilians. Overall, fighters from Brazil scored 10 wins, suffered two losses and a went to a draw against non-Brazilians. Their work included nine stoppage victories.
LET THE HAMMER FALL: In scoring his first knockout beyond the second round, Thiago Santos became the first fighter to stop Eryk Anders.
THROW THE DARN TOWEL: With Anders unable to return to his corner after the third round ended, Santos was awarded the stoppage at 5:00 of Round 3. He became the fifth fighter in UFC history -- the first in a non-title fight -- to stop a fighter between rounds after the third. Frequently cited as an example of a fight stopped between rounds, Georges St. Pierre won by technical knockout after B.J. Penn quit on the stool after the fourth round of their title fight at UFC 94 in 2009.
THESE GO TO 11: When he scored a second-round rear-naked choke on Christos Giagos, Charles Oliveira earned his 11th submission inside the Octagon, the most in UFC history. He surpassed Royce Gracie’s previous record of 10.
SUBMIT TO DESTINY: After earning a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his submission of Giagos, Oliveira has now won 10 post-fight bonuses by submitting an opponent.
PENDULUM SWING: Fighters who missed weight won their first seven bouts in 2018. However, after Renan Barao missed weight and dropped a split decision to Andre Ewell, fighters to miss weight have lost six of their last seven.
THAT OL’ DRAWING BOARD: The majority draw between Randa Markos and Marina Rodriguez marked the third bout in UFC women’s divisional history and first at strawweight to produce deadlocked scorecards. It was also the first draw of 2018.
STEP INTO THE BODY SHOT: After catching a knee to the body from Francisco Trinaldo that put him down, Evan Dunham has been stopped with body strikes in two fights in a row. He joins Tito Ortiz as the only other recorded fighter to ever drop two straight fights from body shots in the UFC. With three knockout losses in his UFC career via strikes to the body, Dunham has the most recorded losses from body shots in UFC history.
PURE FULGURITE: By picking up his sixth straight loss inside the Octagon, Hector Lombard became the first fighter in promotional history to lose six in a row. Elvis Sinosic and Phil Baroni both lost six straight UFC fights, but they fought outside the promotion between those losses.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW: Making her UFC debut in spectacular fashion, Livia Renata Souza submitted Alex Chambers in 81 seconds with a guillotine choke, earning the fastest submission win in UFC women’s strawweight history. Souza’s submission topped the previous record of 90 seconds, set by Maryna Moroz over Joanne Calderwood at UFC Fight Night 64 in 2015.
BETTORS KNOW BETTER: A monumental betting favorite at -1500, Souza quickly handled +1000 underdog Chambers in the first round; she closed as the biggest betting favorite of 2018 so far. Souza served as the biggest betting favorite since -1500 Paige VanZant faced off against -1000 Chambers at UFC 191 in 2015.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 137, Ben Saunders had never been submitted (33 fights), Carlo Pedersoli Jr. had never been stopped (12 fights) and Luigi Vendramini had never been defeated (eight fights).
THE CURSE IS COME UPON ME: Two fighters -- Markos and Giagos -- walked to the cage accompanied by Eminem tracks, with Markos using “Drop the World” and Giagos using “Till I Collapse.” Neither fighter won. Fighters walking out to Eminem have recorded more losses (87) than all but four other artists have in total song uses: Kanye West, DMX, AC/DC and 2Pac.
I KNEW THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK: Making his final walk to the cage by choosing “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, Dunham lost by second-round knockout. Fighters that have used “Thunderstruck” over the years hold the lowest winning percentage of any song with at least 20 recorded uses at .333.
Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.
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