Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 4,842
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 454
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday planted its flag in Moncton, New Brunswick, for the first time. UFC Fight Night 138 featured a finishing machine who has put away opponents in over 90 percent of his wins, a slew of walkout songs pulled from the 1990s singles charts and several competitors who proved records are just numbers.
LIMPING TO THE FINISH LINE: Only three of the 26 fighters on this card had won their previous bouts inside the Octagon, and four were making their promotional debuts. Anthony Smith had won his last two fights, while Michael Johnson and Nasrat Haqparast each won the last time they stepped in the UFC cage.
SHOUTOUT: Fellow MMA statistician Nick Dwyer created a metric to track the momentum of fighters on a card by combining each fighter’s winning or losing streak to calculate a “Dwyer Score” for a given event. UFC Fight Night 138 held the lowest “Dwyer Score” of any event in UFC history by far, meaning the combined momentum leading up to it was at an all-time low.
RECORDS ARE FOR DJS: Five fighters at UFC Fight Night 138 had 10 or more losses on their resumes coming into their bouts: Smith, Johnson, Artem Lobov, Gian Villante and Ed Herman.
EAT YOUR LIONHEART OUT: By taking out Volkan Oezdemir with a third-round rear-naked choke, Smith has now finished his opponent in 28 of his 31 wins -- a huge finish rate just above 90 percent.
TIME TO TAKE NOTICE: Smith’s submission of Oezdemir earned him a “Performance of the Night” bonus. In his last four appearances, Smith has earned three post-fight bonuses.
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE: With a record of 13-14-1, Lobov is the first fighter in a main or co-main event without winning record since “The Ultimate Fighter 18” Finale in 2013. Julianna Pena faced off against Jessica Rakoczy (1-4) in the co-headliner to win the women’s bantamweight portion of the show. Rakoczy did have an accomplished boxing record of 33-3 prior to joining the reality series cast, and like Lobov, she went 3-0 on her season of “The Ultimate Fighter” to earn her place in the final. You have your answer, Ben Duffy.
HERE’S GIANNY: For the fourth consecutive time, Gian Villante fought to a split decision. He has gone 2-2 in that stretch, and he became the first fighter in UFC history to ever fight to four straight split decisions. His five split decisions inside the Octagon overall are the most in the light heavyweight divisional history.
COURT IS IN SESSION: For the 11th time in his last 12 bouts dating back to 2011, Court McGee went the distance with an opponent. The only stoppage during that stretch was a first-round knockout loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio in 2016.
PUT ON THE BRAKES: Prior to joining the UFC, Haqparast never went the distance in any of his nine fights leading up to his signing. In each of his three UFC bouts, Haqparast has reached the scorecards.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 138, the UFC had never traveled to the province of New Brunswick in Canada, Patrick Cummins had never been submitted (15 fights) and Chris Fishgold had never been finished (19 fights).
I’M BRINGING IT BACK: For the second time in as many fights, Smith made his walk to the cage with 90s hit “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison, and he has won both times. Dominick Reyes also came out to that song at UFC 229 before facing Ovince St. Preux. He won, too.
MR. COOL ICE: Two fighters -- Johnson and Steven Ray -- walked out to LL Cool J tracks at this event, with Johnson using “I’m Bad” and Ray accompanied by “Mama Said Knock You Out.” Both fighters prevailed by decision.
WALKOUTS FROM HELL: In seven recorded uses, no fighter to walk out to a Pantera song has ever won a fight. Ed Herman walked out to “Becoming” and lost a decision to Villante.