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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 5,370
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 497
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday came back to Tampa with 14 fights jam packed into an event that provided all sorts of wild results. UFC Fight Night 161 featured one of the winningest female fighters in the promotion’s history doing what she does best, an incredibly rare upkick knockout and an uncommon stoppage from leg kicks.
THE MORE, THE MERRIER?: Fourteen fights took place at UFC Fight Night 161, tying UFC on Fox 29 and UFC Fight Night 137 for the second-most bouts on any Ultimate Fighting Championship card. The most came at UFC 2, where 15 fights occurred in March 1994.
BACK IN THE OL’ US OF A: Spanning six events from UFC Fight Night 157 to UFC 243, the UFC held fight cards in countries other than the United States. This is the longest stretch of international events since a six-show stretch from UFC Fight Night 53 to UFC 180 in 2014. The Las Vegas-based promotion has never held more than six consecutive events outside of the continental United States.
HIT A WALL: Three fighters came into UFC 161 with unbeaten records: Kron Gracie, Mackenzie Dern and Miguel Baeza. Only Baeza ended his night with a perfect record still intact.
JOANNA MURDER: In taking a unanimous decision from Michelle Waterson in the main event, Joanna Jedrzejczyk earned her 10th win inside the UFC cage. This is good for the most inside the strawweight division and the third-most in women’s divisional history, trailing Jessica Andrade and Amanda Nunes with 11 each.
JOANNA DEATH: Jedrzejczyk went into Round 5 for the seventh time in her career. She has gone to that fifth round far more often than any other female fighter, with the next closest fighters being Holly Holm and Valentina Shevchenko. They have seen a fifth round four times apiece.
JOANNA KILL: Only three fighters in UFC history have reached the fifth round more times than Jedrzejczyk: Georges St. Pierre (eight), Demetrious Johnson (10) and Frankie Edgar (10).
TURN UP THE VOLUME: After landing 180 significant strikes and 226 in total, Jedrzejczyk (1,747) is now within 44 strikes of cracking the Top 10 for the most strikes landed in UFC history. She currently has landed the fifth-most significant strikes in organizational history with 1,525.
THAT SOUND, THOUGH: Niko Price leveled James Vick with an upkick in the first round and in doing so earned just the second upkick knockout in UFC history. This first occurred at UFC Fight Night 5 in 2006, as Jon Fitch finished Thiago Alves.
THE CUB WE USED TO KNOW: Cub Swanson and Gracie picked up a “Fight of the Night” bonus for their co-main event battle, giving Swanson his sixth such award inside the promotion. Only five fighters in UFC history have been involved in more bouts that were awarded “Fight of the Night”: Nate Diaz (eight), Diego Sanchez (seven), Edgar (seven), Edson Barboza (seven) and Joe Lauzon (seven).
HE NEVER ONCE LOOKED TIRED: In standing toe-to-toe with Swanson for three hard rounds, Gracie reached the scorecards for the first time in his career. Previously, he had never competed for more than 12:05 in any one bout.
NIKO NASTY: Price raised his finish rate to 93 percent when he wiped out Vick. Ten of his 13 finishes have taken place in the opening round.
KNOCK OUT OR GET KNOCKED OUT: Though he has alternated wins and losses by knockout in each of his last five fights, Price has won a “Performance of the Night” bonus in all three of those victories during that stretch.
EIGHTY-EIGHT FINISHES PER HOUR: When Ryan Spann hit a second-round guillotine choke on Devin Clark, he picked up his 15th stoppage win among his 17 victories, improving his finish rate to 88 percent.
FOUR DAYS, NO PROBLEM: After knocking out Thomas Gifford, short-notice replacement Mike Davis has finished his opponent in all eight of his victories, including seven by knockout.
WHAT A BEAST: In recording the knockout at 4:45 of Round 3, “Beast Boy” became the second lightweight in UFC history to ever finish a fight with strikes with 15 seconds or less remaining in a three-round bout. The other came by Rashid Magomedov over Elias Silverio at 4:57 of the third stanza at UFC Fight Night 58 in 2014.
HARD TO SAY ‘HAKUNA MATATA’: On the receiving end of a bad knockout at Davis’ hands, “The Young Lion” has now dropped three fights by strikes, three by tapout and another three on the scorecards.
CHITOS SOMETIMES PROSPER: Despite winning each of his last five bouts by stoppage, Marlon Vera picked up his first post-fight bonus in that stretch with a “Performance of the Night” award for finishing Andre Ewell with elbows and punches.
LEG KICKS CERTAINLY DO FINISH FIGHTS: Baeza battered the lead leg of Hector Aldana to pick up a leg kick stoppage, earning the ninth finish via leg kicks in promotional history. Welterweights have performed more leg kick stoppages than any other weight class.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 161, Gracie (five fights) and Dern (seven fights) had never been defeated, Ewell had never been knocked out (20 fights) and Aldana had never competed in the U.S. (six fights).
THE SOUND OF IMPENDING DOOM: As he did with his Octagon debut, Gracie walked out to the unusual and intimidating choice of a looping siren from the film “The Purge” before facing his opponent. Unlike his debut, Gracie lost.
‘SHOGUN’ WAS A SOLID ALBUM: Alex Morono walked out to “Throes of Perdition” by Florida-based metal band Trivium and won an exciting decision over Max Griffin. Morono has won both times he has made an appearance accompanied by a Trivium song.
Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.