Fight Facts: UFC on Fox 31
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: 462
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday took its final UFC on Fox card to Milwaukee, where the promotion gave the network a great sendoff with wild action from start to finish. UFC on Fox 31 featured another thrilling performance from the organization’s all-time submission leader, the first post-fight bonus for an entertaining personality and a fighter who has appeared as many times as the UFC has held events on Fox.
THE BOYS ARE ZAK IN TOWN: For the first time in
UFC history, two fighters on the roster named Zak -- Zak
Cummings and Zak Ottow --
both appeared on a card together. Both fighters won by
decision.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: A winner of seven bouts by decision, Kevin Lee lost in points for just the second time in his career. The only man to ever beat him on the scorecards is Al Iaquinta, who has now done so twice.
ALL IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD: In his 12th bout inside the Octagon, Iaquinta finally earned a post-fight bonus, when he was awarded “Performance of the Night” honors after beating Lee. Iaquinta recently had a post-fight bonus ban lifted that was initially set after he committed several UFC fighter conduct violations, including famously destroying a hotel room after defeating Joe Lauzon in 2015.
ART OF EIGHT LIMBS: After finishing Dan Hooker with a punch to the body, Edson Barboza has now knocked out opponents in six different ways throughout his UFC career: with leg kicks, a spinning wheel kick, retirement, a body kick, a knee and now a punch to the body.
SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD WHAT YOUR BODY’S GOT: Although Barboza punished Hooker with strikes of all kinds, a single punch to the body put the Kiwi down. The stoppage marked the ninth time a fighter has been knocked out inside the Octagon with a single body punch and the third time in 2018 -- the most of any year.
FONTDOWN: By outpointing Sergio Pettis, Rob Font earned his fifth career win by decision. His resume also includes four submission victories, while he has suffered three defeats by decision. Throughout his career, he has tapped two opponents with a guillotine choke, while holding one submission loss, as well -- also by guillotine.
HONORARY GRACIE: In tapping Jim Miller in the first round with a rear-naked choke, Charles Oliveira extended his own record for the most submissions performed in UFC history with 12.
BONUS BANKER: After earning a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his submission victory, Oliveira moved into a fourth-place tie with Anderson Silva for the most post-fight bonuses earned in UFC history with 13. They trail Lauzon (15), Nate Diaz (15) and Donald Cerrone (14).
NO PERFORMANCE ISSUES HERE: The bonus earned by Oliveira was his seventh for “Performance of the Night.” He has now earned more of that type of bonus than any other fighter.
LUCRATIVE STREAK: Oliveira has now earned post-fight bonus money in four of his last five fights, including each of his last three. Seven of his last eight submission wins have resulted in bonus money for Oliveira, including one victory that also earned him “Fight of the Night” over Nik Lentz at UFC Fight Night 67 in 2015. The lone submission for which he did not win a bonus came after he missed weight against Myles Jury at UFC on Fox 17 and was therefore ineligible for post-fight money.
HE’LL SOON BE BACK … AND IN GREATER NUMBERS: While it was in a losing effort, Miller made his 31st walk to the Octagon against Oliveira, extending his record for the most appearances inside the promotion.
BYE BYE, BOBBY: Upon losing a decision to Drakkar Klose, Bobby Green elected to retire after a career that spanned 35 fights and almost 11 years. A veteran of Strikeforce and the UFC, Green even appeared at the Affliction “Day of Reckoning” event in 2009. He celebrated a record of 4-1 with Strikeforce before signing with the UFC. Green competed 10 times inside the Octagon, going 5-4-1 with two post-fight bonuses.
SOMETIMES YOU EAT THE BAR …: Following his submission loss to Jack Hermansson, Gerald Meerschaert has still only gone the distance three times in 38 career bouts. While Meerschaert has submitted his opponent in over 70 percent of his wins, he has also dropped eight bouts by submission across his 10 losses.
TAKES JUAN TO KNOW JUAN: In remaining undefeated as a professional, Juan Adams has knocked out all five of his opponents. In his previous four bouts, Adams totaled 11 minutes and 10 seconds of cage time, and he had never fought out of the first round. His encounter with Chris de la Rocha lasted 12 seconds less than his combined cage time leading up to it.
BIG OL’ HEAD: Like his opponent, de la Rocha had also never fought into the third round in any of his previous seven career bouts. All three of his losses have come by knockout, with his first in the first round, second in the second round and this third in the third round.
ROSE, MEET THORN: Jessica-Rose Clark was slated to compete at this event against Andrea Lee but was hospitalized during her weight cut and saw the bout scratched. Starting out at featherweight, Clarke earlier in her career even submitted current top-ranked featherweight Arlene Blencowe before dropping down in weight. Prior to signing with the UFC, Clark once missed weight by five pounds and had a win overturned as a result. She missed by two pounds for her UFC debut. Clark announced she would officially be moving to bantamweight next.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC on Fox 31, Lee had never fought five full rounds (20 fights), Hooker had never been knocked out (24 fights) and Pettis had never lost consecutive bouts (22 fights).
AT LEAST IT DIDN’T END LIKE THE SOPRANOS: Iaquinta won after making his walk to the cage accompanied by “Woke Up This Morning” by Alabama 3, famously known as the theme song from the hit TV show “The Sopranos.” Alternating his walkouts between “New York” by Ja Rule ft. Fat Joe & Jadakiss and this track, Iaquinta has won all four fights when using “Woke Up This Morning.”
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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