After nearly two years on the sidelines, Josh Barnett showed he has a little left in the tank -- quite a bit more than a little, actually.
Meanwhile, Uriah Hall dazzled in the co-main event, as he stopped Gegard Mousasi with a spinning back kick to flying knee combination 25 seconds into round two. In addition to being the signature win of Hall’s promotional tenure, it was the type of finish rarely seen in the Octagon. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night “Barnett vs. Nelson,” with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
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146: Significant strikes landed by Barnett, a UFC record for a heavyweight in a single fight. By comparison, Nelson landed 60. Tim Sylvia, the previous owner of the record, landed 138 significant strikes against Wesley Correira at UFC 39, a fight that was stopped 1:39 into the second round.
215: Total strikes landed by Barnett; Nelson landed 92.
95: Significant clinch strikes landed by Barnett, a single-fight UFC record for all weight classes. Nelson, meanwhile, landed 29 significant strikes in the clinch.
763: Significant strikes absorbed in UFC competition by Nelson, the six-most of any athlete in the promotion.
4: Takedowns landed, in 10 attempts by Nelson, a career high for the International Fight League veteran. “Big Country” had never landed more than two takedowns in UFC competition.
2-10: Career record for Nelson in fights that end in a decision. “Big Country” has gone the distance against the likes of Alistair Overeem, Daniel Cormier, Stipe Miocic, Fabricio Werdum, Junior dos Santos and Ben Rothwell over the course of his pro tenure.
2: Five round fights in the 41-bout career of Barnett. Prior to going the full 25 minutes against Nelson, “The Warmaster” dropped a five-round verdict to Daniel Cormier in the finals of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix in May 2012.
4,936: Days since Barnett defeated Randy Couture at UFC 36 to become the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of the Las Vegas-based promotion.
2: Fights in UFC history that ended via KO/TKO as a result of a spinning back kick. Hall joined Renan Barao, who iced Eddie Wineland with the maneuver at UFC 165, as the only two fighters to accomplish the feat. “Primetime” rocked Gegard Mousasi with a jumping spinning back kick in the second round of their middleweight encounter before polishing off his foe with a flying knee and follow-up punches 25 seconds into the period.
44: Professional fights without a KO/TKO loss for Mousasi, who has faced the likes of Dan Henderson, Mark Hunt, Melvin Manhoef and Hector Lombard over the course of his career. Hall became the first to stop Mousasi with strikes in the Armenian-born Dutchman’s 45th appearance.
7: Guard passes executed by Mousasi, all of which came during a dominant first round in which he also outlanded Hall 34 to 5 in total strikes.
55: Significant strikes by which Chico Camus outlanded Kyoji Horiguchi (98 to 43) in their featured flyweight clash. Despite that discrepancy, Horiguchi appeared to be in control throughout and received three 30-27 scorecards from the cageside judges. Camus outlanded his foe by at least 15 significant strikes in each round.
170-71: Significant strike advantage for Horiguchi in his previous four UFC triumphs. The Japanese flyweight also outlanded his foes 264 to 100 in total strikes in those bouts.
10: Bantamweight victories for Takeya Mizugaki in UFC/WEC competition, tying him with Renan Barao, Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen for most in the history of the promotion’s. The Japanese veteran earned his 10th 135-pound triumph on Saturday night, taking a unanimous verdict over George Roop in a featured bout.
23: Significant strikes by which Roop outlanded Mizugaki. Roop outlanded his foe 28 to 18 in round one, 24 to 18 in round two and 18 to 11 in round three. Meanwhile, Mizugaki held a 97-to-88 edge in total strikes.
3: First-round knockout losses in his last four Octagon appearances for Katsunori Kikuno, who was stopped by Diego Brando 28 seconds into the opening frame of their 145-pound encounter. The longtime Deep veteran went 29 fights to begin his career without being knocked out.
23: Combined significant strikes landed by Kikuno in those three defeats, including just one apiece vs. Brandao and Edimilson Souza.
189: Combined total strikes landed by Teruto Ishihara and Mizuto Hirota in the “Road to UFC: Japan” featherweight final. Ishihara outlanded his foe 100 to 89 in total strikes, 88 to 62 in significant strikes and scored two knockdowns in a bout that was ruled a split draw. Hirota, meanwhile, landed the only two takedowns of the fight.
9: Media scorecards, of the 12 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the bout for Hirota. Two had it for Ishihara, while another saw the fight as a draw.
39: Significant strike deficit for Keita Nakamura against Jingliang Li in their welterweight bout. Nakamura was able to rally to defeat Li via rear-naked choke at the 2:17 mark of round three.
2: Fighters who began their Ultimate Fighting Championship tenures with five consecutive defeats, according to MMADecisions.com. Naoyuki Kotani now shares this dubious honor with John Alessio after falling to Kajan Johnson in Japan on Saturday night. Kotani’s streak began with setbacks to Thiago Tavares and Dennis Siver in 2007 and continued in 2014 with losses to Norman Parke and Yan Cabral before his defeat against Johnson.
10: Fighters in UFC history -- including Kotani – who have lost five consecutive fights in the Octagon at some point in their career.