Derrick Lewis was forced to withdraw from his scheduled heavyweight headliner against Sergey Spivak due to a non-COVID related illness, leaving Saturday’s card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with a makeshift main event between Kennedy Nzechukwu and Ion Cutelaba at the top of card. To his credit, Nzechukwu did his best to provide fireworks in the absence of the heavyweights with a second-round technical knockout — his second straight triumph in the promotion and his eighth career triumph via KO or TKO.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 215, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
18: Significant strike advantage for Nzechukwu in the decisive second stanza, when he wobbled Cutelaba with a knee and finished his reeling adversary with punches at the 1:02 mark of Round 2.
1-5-1: UFC record for Cutelaba since 2020. “The Hulk” has been finished in all of his defeats.
147: Significant strikes landed by Waldo Cortes-Acosta in a three-round verdict over Chase Sherman in their heavyweight co-main event. By comparison, Sherman landed 66 significant strikes. “Salsa Boy” outlanded his foe 29 to 18 in Round 1, 71 to 21 in Round 2 and 47 to 27 in Round 3.
124: Significant head strikes for Cortes-Acosta. Sherman, meanwhile, landed 25 significant strikes to the head.
38: Significant strikes by which Muslim Salikhov outlanded Andre Fialho in a third-round technical knockout victory at welterweight. This included a 37-to-5 advantage in a lopsided Round 2 before “The King of Kung Fu” put his foe away with a spinning wheel kick and follow-up punches 1:03 into the third period.
14: Fights in UFC history with finishes stemming from spinning wheel kicks, including Salikhov’s work against Fialho.
5: Octagon appearances for Fialho in 2022, the most of any UFC fighter this year. Fialho went 2-3 in those bouts, with all but one ending inside the distance.
13: Consecutive professional victories for Jack Della Maddalena following his first-round stoppage of Danny Roberts in a featured welterweight bout.
3: Consecutive KO/TKO victories for Della Maddalena in UFC competition, tying him with Jamahal Hill and Ilia Topuria for the second-longest active streak in the promotion. The 26-year-old Aussie has finished all three of his UFC opponents — Roberts, Pete Rodriguez and Ange Loosa — inside of a round.
.550: Significant striking accuracy for Della Maddalena, who landed 33 of 60 attempts and scored a pair of knockdowns in victory.
12: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 13 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that awarded the flyweight clash between Zhalgas Zhumagulov and Charles Johnson to Zhumagulov. Judges Derek Cleary and Sal D’Amato saw things differently, as both submitted 29-28 tallies for Johnson to give him a split-decision triumph.
234: Combined significant strikes landed by Zhumagulov (119) and Johnson (115). Zhumagulov outlanded his opponent 43 to 32 in Round 1 and 46 to 33 in Round 2, while Johnson held a 50-to-30 edge in the final frame.
109: Significant strikes landed by Jennifer Maia in a unanimous decision victory against Maryna Moroz at flyweight. That’s a career best in 10 UFC appearances for the former 125-pound title challenger. Moroz landed 80 significant strikes in defeat.
1: Takedown landed in 12 attempts for Miles Johns in a narrow three-round verdict over Vince Morales at bantamweight. Morales held a slight 39-to-38 edge in significant strikes, while Johns logged 2:08 of control time compared to five seconds for his opponent.
170: Total strikes landed by Ricky Turcios in a split-decision triumph over Kevin Natividad in a preliminary bantamweight clash. By comparison, Natividad landed 61 total strikes. Turcios also held a 68-to-41 edge in significant strikes.
7: Takedowns landed by Natividad in 13 attempts. In his first two Octagon appearances, Natividad did not landed a single takedown. However, Turcios actually logged 6:17 of control time to his opponent’s 5:00 thanks to his ability to create numerous scrambles.
3: Consecutive victories for Vanessa Demopoulos, tying her with J.J. Aldrich and Lupita Godinez for the second-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s strawweight division. Tatiana Suarez currently owns the longest streak with five straight wins, but she hasn’t competed since June 2019. Demopoulos earned a unanimous decision win over Maria Oliveira on Saturday.
9:14: Total control time for “The Ultimate Fighter 29” finalist Brady Hiestand in a unanimous decision triumph over Fernando Garcia at bantamweight. After being rocked in an initial exchange, Hiestand let his grappling take over, as he also landed takedowns in each frame and logged 4:24 of control time in the final stanza.
5: Fights in UFC history that have ended as a result of a spinning back kick to the head. With her third-round stoppage of Tereza Bleda, Natalia Silva joins a group that includes Renan Barao, Uriah Hall, Magomed Mustafaev and Joaquin Buckley. It was also Silva’s first KO/TKO victory in MMA competition since Dec. 17, 2016.