Benson Henderson managed to survive the Frankie Edgar rematch. After five closely contested rounds, “Smooth” emerged with a narrow split-decision victory to retain his lightweight title in the UFC 150 main event at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Saturday night.
Much less ambiguous was Donald Cerrone’s first-round knockout victory over former teammate Melvin Guillard in the evening’s co-feature. After being hurt by a left hand from Guillard early, Cerrone landed a glancing head kick to wobble his foe before finishing the deal with a straight right hand. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 150.
3: Rounds in which Edgar landed more significant strikes than Henderson. The former lightweight champion outlanded “Smooth” in rounds one (11 to 7), three (15 to 13) and four (17 to 15). Overall, the New Jersey native outlanded Henderson 66 to 62 in significant strikes over the course of their 25-minute encounter.
25: Difference in significant strikes landed by Henderson against Edgar in their first meeting at UFC 144 (87) and the number he landed on Saturday night (62). Meanwhile, Edgar’s output was quite similar, as he landed 68 significant strikes at UFC 144 and 66 at UFC 150.
6: Consecutive Henderson bouts that have gone the distance, dating back to his loss to Anthony Pettis in a 155-pound title bout at WEC 53. All five of Henderson’s UFC bouts have gone to the judges’ scorecards. His last finish came when he defeated Cerrone via guillotine choke at WEC 48 in 2010.
3-2-1: Record for Edgar in bouts that are scheduled to go five rounds. All but one of those contests – a fourth-round TKO of Gray Maynard at UFC 136 – have gone the full 25 minutes. Edgar had not lost a title bout until facing Henderson at UF C 144.
2: Takedowns, in six attempts, landed by Edgar. The Ricardo Almeida Jiu-Jitsu representative scored a takedown in round one and round four against Henderson, who failed in his sole takedown attempt in the fight.
42: Career takedowns landed by Edgar, the ninth most in UFC history. He is four takedowns behind Randy Couture for No. 8 on the list.
767: Career significant strikes landed by Edgar, which moves him right above Sam Stout into seventh place on the UFC’s all-time list.
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Cerrone stopped Guillard in round one.
4: Significant strikes landed by Cerrone on Saturday night. It marks the third time in “Cowboy’s” UFC and WEC career that he has landed less than 10 significant strikes in victory.
12: Knockdowns landed by Guillard during his UFC career, good for No. 3 among all fighters in the promotion’s history. The Louisiana native floored Cerrone with a left hand early in the first round, but was unable to finish the Jackson’s MMA product.
148: Total strikes landed by Jake Shields in his unanimous decision triumph against Ed Herman. The Cesar Gracie representative outlanded his opponent by 77 strikes and successfully executed three takedowns in his first middleweight bout since April 17, 2010.
34: Total strikes by which Yushin Okami outlanded Buddy Roberts en route to earning a second-round stoppage against the Jackson’s MMA product. Okami controlled the fight on the mat, taking Roberts down three times and passing guard on eight different occasions.
.230: Significant striking accuracy for Max Holloway in his second-round TKO victory against Justin Lawrence. The Hawaiian landed 29 of 124 strikes thrown, including a devastating body punch that sealed his victory. By comparison, Lawrence landed 32 of 90 significant strikes thrown, a 35.5 percent clip.
2: Two first round losses in two UFC appearances for Tommy Hayden, who succumbed to a guillotine choke from Dennis Bermudez at 4:43 of the opening round on Saturday. Previously, Hayden fell victim to a guillotine choke from Fabricio Camoes in the first round at UFC on FX 1.
111: Total strikes thrown by Jared Hamman in the opening round of his loss to Michael Kuiper. “The Messenger” outlanded his opponent 50 to 36 in the first frame, but Kuiper had a 29 to 14 edge in total strikes in the second frame.
17: Seconds needed by Erik Perez to stop Ken Stone with strikes, the fastest knockout by a bantamweight in WEC and UFC history. At just 22 years old, “El Goyito” is one of the youngest fighters on the UFC roster.
.710: Significant striking accuracy by Chico Camus, who defeated “TUF 14” alumnus Dustin Pague in his Octagon debut. The Duke Roufus protégé landed 32 of 45 significant strikes and 86 of 109 strikes overall.