The former KSW two-division champion captured a narrow unanimous decision against Tsarukyan in the UFC on ESPN 38 headliner, a verdict that figures to be a topic of debate in the coming weeks. As it currently stands, “Gamer” is the owner of a four-bout winning streak in the hyper-competitive UFC lightweight division, while Tsarukyan had a five-fight winning streak snapped in defeat.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC on ESPN 38, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
95: Significant strikes landed by Tsarukyan. By comparison, Gamrot landed 81. Tsarukyan outlanded his foe by a small margin in each round and scored the bout’s only knockdown in Round 4. The margin was closer in total strikes, with Tsarukyan holding a 110-to-108 edge.
68: Significant head strikes for Gamrot, who seemed to have the edge in boxing exchanges. Tsarukyan, meanwhile, landed 43 significant strikes to the head.
39: Significant body strikes for Tsarukyan, who notably connected with a number of thudding kicks to the body. Gamrot landed just nine significant strikes in this category. Tsarukyan also held a 13-to-4 edge in significant leg strikes.
6: Takedowns landed in 21 attempts for Gamrot. All six of his successful attempts came in the final 15 minutes of the fight. It was the first UFC bout in which “Gamer” failed to land a takedown in every round. He had previously landed at least one takedown in each of his first eight UFC rounds. Tsarukyan, meanwhile, landed one of eight takedowns.
4:58: Total control time for Gamrot. Tsarukyan logged 1:39 of control time in the lightweight bout.
15: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 22 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that awarded the fight to Tsarukyan. Judges Sal D’Amato, Chris Lee and Ron McCarthy all submitted 48-47 tallies in favor of Gamrot.
4: Consecutive finishes in UFC competition for Shavkat Rakhmonov, tying him with Paul Craig, Islam Makhachev and Jalin Turner for the third-longest active finishing streak in the promotion. Heavyweights Tom Aspinall and Tai Tuivasa are tied for the longest streak with five apiece. Rakhmonov submitted Neil Magny with a guillotine choke in the second round of their welterweight co-main event.
9:06: Total control time for Rakmonov in a bout that lasted 9:58. The Kazakhstan native went 2-for-2 on takedown attempts and outlanded his opponent 56 to 21 in total strikes.
53: Total strikes by which Josh Parisian outlanded Alan Baudot in the decisive second round of their heavyweight bout, when Parisian finished the contest with punches from back mount. It was a sharp contrast from the opening frame, when Baudot scored a knockdown and held a 38-to-25 advantage in significant strikes but couldn’t finish his resilient opponent.
72: Significant strikes by which Umar Nurmagomedov outlanded Nathan Maness in a lopsided unanimous decision triumph at bantamweight. Nurmagomedov outlanded his foe 18 to 1 in Round 1, 21 to 0 in Round 2 and 35 to 1 in Round 3. He also landed three of four takedown attempts and held a 128-to-46 edge in total strikes.
57: Significant ground strikes landed by Nurmagomedov. Maness failed to land a single significant strike on the canvas.
15: Consecutive victories for Nurmagomedov, who is 3-0 at 135 pounds in the UFC and has the look of a top prospect in the division.
20: Takedowns successfully defended by Chris Curtis in a unanimous decision triumph over decorated grappler Rodolfo Vieira at middleweight. Vieira failed to land a single takedown in the bout, failing on a whopping 10 attempts in the final stanza alone.
109: Significant strikes landed by Curtis. By comparison, Vieira landed 86. Curtis got better as the bout progressed, outlanding his foe 46 to 41 in Round 2 and 46 to 26 in Round 3 after facing a 19-to-17 deficit in the opening frame.
29: Significant body strikes for Curtis. Vieira, meanwhile, landed just six.
7:32: Total control time for Nuerdanbieke Shayilan in a three-round verdict over T.J. Brown at featherweight. The Chinese fighter landed three of six takedowns and successfully defended four submission attempts from his opponent. By comparison, Brown logged 2:54 of control time in defeat.
39: Significant strikes landed by Raulian Paiva in Round 1 of his unanimous decision loss to Sergey Morozov at bantamweight. Morozov, meanwhile, landed 31 significant strikes in the opening stanza.
24: Combined significant strikes landed by Paiva in Rounds 2 and 3 combined. Morozov landed 37 significant strikes over the final 10 minutes of the bout.
8: Knockdowns suffered by J.P. Buys in three UFC appearances. Cody Durden floored the South African fighter early in Round 1 en route to a technical knockout victory 78 seconds into their flyweight clash. Buys was floored four times by Montel Jackson at UFC Fight Night 192 and three times by Bruno Silva at UFC on ESPN 21.
27: Total strikes by which Durden outlanded Buys in just 78 seconds of action.
8: Submission defeats among 14 career losses for Brian Kelleher, who succumbed to a rear-naked choke from Mario Bautista in the first round of their preliminary bantamweight showdown.
11: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 12 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that awarded the strawweight fight between Vanessa Demopoulos and Jinh Yu Frey to Frey. Judges Ron McCarthy and Jerin Valel saw things differently, however, which led to a split-decision triumph for Demopoulos.