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The controversial welterweight known as “Chaos” relied on his relentless grappling to cruise to a five-round verdict over Masvidal in the UFC 272 headliner at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Covington survived a few moments of danger but was largely dominant against his former American Top Team training partner, sending “Gamebred” to the first three-fight losing streak of his professional career.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 272, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
12: Ultimate Fighting Championship victories since 2014 for Covington, tying him with Tim Means for the fourth most in the division during that timeframe. Only Neil Magny (17), Kamaru Usman (15) and Vicente Luque (14) have won more over the same period.
218: Total strikes landed by Covington. By comparison, Masvidal landed 90. Covington also held a 94-to-67 edge in significant strikes.
6: Takedowns landed in 15 attempts for Covington. “Chaos” enjoyed 16:14 of control time in the 25-minute contest.
13: Takedowns surrendered by Masvidal in his last three outings, losses to Covington and Kamaru Usman (twice). “Gamebred” gave up 20 takedowns combined in his first 18 Octagon appearances.
20: UFC victories for Rafael dos Anjos, who defeated Renato Carneiro via unanimous decision in the evening’s five-round, co-main event at a 160-pound catchweight. Dos Anjos is the 10th fighter in promotion history to achieve 20 wins.
149: Significant strikes landed by dos Anjos, who also scored the fight’s only knockdown in Round 3. Carneiro landed 88 significant strikes in defeat — 61 less than his opponent.
74: Combined significant strikes landed by dos Anjos (38) and Carneiro (36) in a wild fifth round. Prior the frame, Carneiro was examined by a cageside doctor and the bout was nearly halted. Nonetheless, “Moicano” authored his most competitive frame by far.
5: Takedowns landed in 15 attempts by dos Anjos, who also logged 13:22 of control time and landed 58 significant strikes on the mat.
6: Consecutive triumphs for Bryce Mitchell, the third-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s featherweight division behind Alexander Volkanovski (eight) and Arnold Allen (eight). Mitchell earned a dominant unanimous decision against Edson Barboza in a featured 145-pound contest on Saturday night.
182: Total strikes landed by Mitchell. By comparison, Barboza landed 23. “Thug Nasty” outlanded his foe 47 to 12 in Round 1, 78 to 3 in Round 2 and 57 to 8 in Round 3.
11:28: Total control time in the 15-minute bout for Mitchell, who was successful on all four of his takedown attempts.
14: Significant ground strikes landed by Sergey Spivak in a first-round TKO stoppage of Greg Hardy at heavyweight. That figure accounts for the entirety of significant strikes landed by the Moldovan, who powered Hardy to the mat, assumed full mount and ended the contest with ground-and-pound from above. Spivac also landed three of four takedown attempts and secured 1:21 of control time in a bout that lasted 2:16.
4: Consecutive finishes for Jalin Turner in UFC competition, tied for the second-longest active streak in the promotion behind only heavyweight Tai Tuivasa (five). Turner defeated Jamie Mullarkey via second-round TKO on Saturday, adding the Aussie to a recent list of victims that also includes Joshua Culibao, Brok Weaver and Uros Medic.
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95: Significant strikes landed by Kennedy Nzechukwu in a split-decision loss to Nicolae Negumereanu at light heavyweight. By comparison, Negumereanu landed 64. Nzechukwu did his best work in Round 3, when he outlanded his opponent by a 55-to-27 count.
22: Significant strikes by which Marina Rodriguez outlanded Xiaonan Yan in the third round of their strawweight matchup. That late push helped propel the Brazilian muay Thai stylist to a split-decision triumph over her Chinese foe. All told, Rodriguez outlanded Yan 72 to 56 in significant strikes.
2,520: Days since Maryna Moroz’s last submission victory, a first-round armbar of Joanne Calderwood in her Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 64 on April 11, 2015. Moroz scored her latest tapout victory when she submitted Mariya Agapova with an arm-triangle choke 3:27 into Round 2 of their flyweight clash.
14: Consecutive victories by Umar Nurmagomedov to begin his professional career. The cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov secured his second Octagon triumph on Saturday, submitting Brian Kelleher in the opening round of a featherweight showdown.
17: Significant strike advantage for Nurmagomedov in 3:15 of cage time. The Dagestani outlanded his foe 18 to 1 in significant strikes and 21 to 1 in total strikes.
12: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 17 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that awarded the flyweight clash between Tim Elliott and Tagir Ulanbekov to Ulanbekov. However, judges Derek Cleary, Junichirio Kamijo and Ron McCarthy saw things differently, as all three saw the fight 29-28 in favor of Elliott.
90: Significant strikes landed by Ulanbekov. By comparison, Elliott landed 79. Ulanbekov outlanded his foe 38 to 36 in Round 1 and 31 to 20 in Round 3, while Elliott held a 23-to-21 advantage in Round 2. Meanwhile, Elliott landed the bout’s only knockdown, outlanded Ulanbekov 117 to 111 in total strikes and had three takedowns to his opponent’s two.
6: Unbeaten streak in UFC competition for Dustin Jacoby, tying him with reigning champion Glover Teixeira for the third-longest active winning streak in the light heavyweight division. Only Jon Jones (18) and Magomed Ankalaev (seven) have longer streaks. Jacoby took a unanimous decision over Michal Oleksiejczuk in the evening’s opening preliminary bout.
25: Combined significant strike advantage for Jacoby in Rounds 2 and 3. Oleksiejczuk outlanded his opponent by five significant strikes in the opening frame.