Alex Pereira didn’t require any magic to vanquish Jiri Prochazka. A perfectly-placed head kick did the job just fine.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 303, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
7: Fighters in Ultimate Fighting Championship history to earn a finish using four or more different striking techniques. By using a head kick to vanquish Prochazka, Pereira joined an exclusive group that also includes Georges St. Pierre, Jeremy Stephens, Anthony Smith, Dan Hooker, Alistair Overeem and Johnny Walker. In addition to the head kick, “Poatan” has finished fights using punches, elbows and a flying knee.
4: Title fight wins since November 2022 for Pereira, the most of anyone in the UFC during that timeframe.
2: Successful light heavyweight title defenses for Pereira, making him the first 205-pound champion since Jon Jones to make at least that many defenses.
31: Significant strikes by which Pereira outlanded Prochazka in the abbreviated affair. Pereira landed 38 of his 50 attempts — a 76% success rate. Prochazka landed seven of 25 significant strikes — a 28% clip.
6: Career knockdowns for Pereira. Saturday marked the first time during his UFC tenure that he landed two in a single fight.
5: Different fights/weight classes booked as the UFC 303 co-main event. What initially started as a light heavyweight clash between Khalil Rountree and Jamahal Hill evolved into a 165-pound catchweight affair pitting Dan Ige against Diego Lopes on Saturday night. In between there were the following fights: Hill vs. Carlos Ulberg, Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes at featherweight and Ortega vs. Lopes at lightweight. Ige stepped in on fight night after Ortega was forced out of the event due to illness.
100: Significant strikes landed by Roman Dolidze in his short-notice light heavyweight debut, a unanimous decision triumph over Anthony Smith. By comparison, Smith landed 51 significant strikes. Dolidze did his best work in Round 2, outlanding his foe by a 48-to-11 count.
Related » UFC 303 Round-by-Round Scoring
8: Consecutive victories for Ian Garry, the longest active winning streak in the UFC’s welterweight division. That figure is also tied with Leon Edwards for the third-longest winning streak in division history behind Kamaru Usman (15) and Georges St. Pierre (12).
7:29: Total control time for Garry, which was a key to his victory against the striking-minded Page. The Irishman landed two of five takedown attempts and attempted two submissions in victory.
13: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 15 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the featherweight bout between Cub Swanson and Andre Fili in favor of Swanson. Judges Michael Bell and Ron McCarthy saw things differently, submitting 29-28 tallies for Fili to give the Team Alpha Male product a split-decision triumph.
90: Total strikes landed by Swanson. By comparison, Fili landed 70. However, Fili did have a 67-to-62 advantage in significant strikes landed. Fili also had the fight’s only two takedowns and logged 3:50 of control time. Swanson didn’t land a takedown and had just 29 seconds of control time.
3: Knockdowns landed in two UFC appearances for Jean Silva. The Fighting Nerds export floored Charles Jourdain twice en route to a second-round stoppage at UFC 303.
0:19: Time of Payton Talbott’s first-round knockout victory against Yanis Ghemmouri. That’s the second-fastest finish in UFC bantamweight history behind Erik Perez’s 17-second stoppage of Ken Stone at UFC 150 in August 2012.
122: Total strikes landed by Gillian Robertson in a dominant three-round verdict over Michelle Waterson-Gomez at strawweight. By comparison, Waterson-Gomez landed 41 total strikes.
67: Significant ground strikes, — out of 77 total — for Robertson, who also racked up 12:34 total control time. Waterson-Gomez landed 21 significant strikes — nine on the ground — and had just 19 seconds of control time.
42: UFC bouts for Andrei Arlovski, second most in promotion history behind Jim Miller (44). “The Pit Bull” wound up on the wrong side of a split decision on Saturday, falling to Martin Buday in a preliminary heavyweight contest.
6:49:58: Total fight time for Arlovski. By spending 15 minutes in the Octagon against Buday, the Belarusian moved past Demian Maia (6:49:40) and into sixth place on the UFC’s all-time list.
54: Significant strikes by which Vinicius Oliveira outlanded Ricky Simon in a unanimous decision triumph at bantamweight. “Lok Dog” also stuffed nine of his opponent’s 11 takedown attempts.