Carlos Condit out game-planned Nick Diaz at UFC 143. | AP Photo/Eric Jamison
Carlos Condit entered UFC 143 somewhat overlooked, a mere steppingstone on the road to a Nick Diaz grudge match with Georges St. Pierre. Inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Saturday night, Condit proved he was much more than an afterthought in capturing the interim welterweight crown with a unanimous decision victory over Diaz.
Not everyone appreciated the official decision, including Diaz himself, who criticized Condit’s approach in a post-fight interview. Perception can change with the presence of raw data, however. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 143, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
68: Low kicks landed by Carlos Condit during the course of his five-round unanimous decision victory over former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz. Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts teammate Donald Cerrone previously set the record by landing 49 low kicks against Vagner Rocha at UFC 131. Cerrone’s mark remains atop the list for a three-round fight, however, as Condit had 42 low kicks through three frames.
117: Total strikes landed by Nick Diaz, 140 less than he was able to land in his UFC 137 win over B.J. Penn, which was a three-round affair. Meanwhile, Condit landed 159 total strikes.
329: Total strikes thrown by Condit, 71 more than Diaz attempted in their 25-minute encounter.
4: Rounds where Condit landed more significant strikes than Diaz. “The Natural Born Killer” outlanded Diaz in round one (29 to 23); round three (32 to 22), round four (36 to 11) and round five (25 to 17).
12: Fights since an opponent landed more strikes than Diaz, which was also the last time the Stockton, Calif., native tasted defeat in the cage. In 2007 K.J. Noons outlanded Diaz 18 significant strikes to 13 en route to winning via doctor stoppage.
5: Combined ground strikes landed by Condit (4) and Diaz (1). Diaz earned the only takedown of the fight in the late in the bout’s fifth round, where he attempted to secure a rear-naked choke.
62: Total strikes to the head landed by Diaz on Condit, seven more than the Jackson’s MMA representative was able to land on Diaz.
1,456: Total strikes landed by Diaz in his career, a total that ranks No. 6 on the UFC’s all-time list.
5 minutes, 17 seconds: Difference in total cage time between his clash with Diaz and his 170-pound title defense against Hiromitsu Miura at WEC 35, the longest fight in the Albuquerque native’s career prior to Saturday night.
5-6: Record for Diaz in bouts that go the distance. The Cesar Gracie product had won his last four fights that had gone to the judges.
Josh Koscheck File Photo
Koscheck outwrestled Pierce.
15: UFC victories for Koscheck, which tie him with Tito Ortiz for fifth all-time within the promotion, trailing only Matt Hughes (18), Georges St. Pierre (16) and Chuck Liddell (16).
2: Takedowns for Koscheck, the most against Pierce since Jon Fitch took him down four times at UFC 107. Only Johny Hendricks managed to take him down in his other UFC appearances.
1,218: Days since Roy Nelson suffered a second-round knockout loss to Andrei Arlovski at EliteXC “Heat” in 2008. It remains the only time in 23 professional fights that Big Country has been stopped.
91: Significant strikes landed by Fabricio Werdum in beating Nelson, his most since landing 69 against Gabriel Gonzaga in a 2003 bout.
104: Significant strikes landed by Renan Barao in his unanimous decision triumph against Scott Jorgensen. The Brazilian connected more often than his opponent in each frame, and hit a high-water mark of 49 power strikes in the final frame. By comparison, Jorgensen landed 73 significant strikes.
29: Fight unbeaten streak for Barao, which according to the UFC is the longest such streak in MMA. Other than a loss in his debut in 2005, the only blemish on the Nova Uniao product’s record is a no-contest against Claudemir Souza in 2007.
30: Strike advantage for Alex Caceres in rounds two and three of his split-decision setback to Edwin Figueroa. Strikes to the groin by Caceres forced significant delays in both frames to allow Figueroa to recover, and referee Herb Dean deducted two points from “Bruce Leroy” following the second kick.
2: Fights in UFC history with three-round scores of 28-27, 28-27 and 27-28. Before Figueroa-Caceres, Thales Leites and Nate Marquardt received the same tallies from cageside judges at UFC 85. Like Caceres, Marquardt had two points deducted in defeat -- only his were for separate fouls.
.680: Significant striking accuracy by Matt Brown during his second-round TKO victory over Chris Cope. Brown’s career striking accuracy is 59 percent. The 48 significant strikes landed by “The Immortal” matched his career best, set in a loss to Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 88.
42: Total strikes by which Matt Riddle outlanded Henry Martinez over the course of their welterweight showdown. Riddle, who won via split decision, landed 30 significant strikes to Martinez’s 11 in the bout’s final frame.
63-0: Combined mixed martial arts (6-0) and (57-0) kickboxing record for UFC newcomer Steven Thompson, who made his first Octagon appearance memorable with a spectacular head kick knockout of Daniel Stittgen.