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The Polish champion retained the light heavyweight crown in Saturday’s headliner, taking a unanimous decision triumph over 185-pound king Israel Adesanya at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The perpetually overlooked Blachowicz clinched his victory with takedowns in the championship rounds for his fifth consecutive win, handing “The Last Stylebender” his first defeat in 21 professional outings in the process.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 259, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
107: Significant strikes landed by Blachowicz, a career high in 16 promotinoal appearances for the Pole. His previous best of 98 came against Igor Pokrajac in a three-round fight in April 2016. Blachowicz outlanded Adesanya 18 to 13 in Round 1, 23 to 21 in Round 2, 24 to 21 in Round 3, 14 to 11 in Round 4 and 28 to 12 in Round 5.
184: Total strikes landed by Blachowicz. By comparison, Adesanya landed 99.
3: Takedowns landed in five attempts by Blachowicz. The former KSW champion took his opponent down once each in the final three rounds of the main event.
7:06: Total control time for Blachowicz. That’s the most allowed by Adesanya in his 10-bout UFC tenure.
12: Consecutive victories for Amanda Nunes following a shellacking of Megan Anderson in the UFC 259 co-main event. That ranks second among all UFC fighters behind only reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (13).
3: Victories in featherweight title bouts for Nunes, who also has bested Felicia Spencer and Cristiane Justino with the 145-pound belt on the line. Interestingly enough, the win over Justin was the shortest fight of the three at just 51 seconds.
18: Significant strikes landed by Nunes. Anderson landed just two before tapping out to a triangle armbar 2:03 into the first round.
1: Fighter in UFC history to become champion via disqualification. Aljamain Sterling became the first after an illegal knee from Petr Yan rendered him unable to continue 4:29 into Round 4 of their bantamweight title tilt. As a result, Sterling was awarded the title.
7: UFC bantamweight champions in the promotion’s history. On Saturday, Sterling joined Yan, Dominick Cruz, Renan Barao, T.J. Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt and Henry Cejudo as the only fighters to hold the 135-pound strap.
97: Significant strikes landed by Sterling. Yan, meanwhile, landed 86. Sterling outlanded his adversary 27 to 14 in Round 1 and 17 to 10 in Round 2, while Yan outlanded his opponent 30 to 29 in Round 3 and 32 to 24 in Round 4 before the stoppage. Yan also generally landed the more powerful blows, including the fight’s only knockdown in the opening stanza.
16: Takedowns successfully defended by Yan in 17 attempts. Sterling landed his lone takedown of the fight in the first period.
7: Takedowns landed in seven attempts by Yan, a UFC career high in eight bouts. His previous best of three came in a win over Douglas Silva de Andrade at UFC 232.
7: Consecutive victories for Islam Makhachev, the second-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s lightweight division behind only Charles Oliveira. Makhachev overwhelmed Drew Dober en route to a third-round submission victory in a main card matchup on Saturday.
88: Total strikes by which Makhachev outlanded Dober. The Dagestani grappler also landed three of four takedowns and attempted two submissions while logging 9:26 of control time.
49: Significant strikes landed by Thiago Santos in an uneventful decision loss to Alexander Rakic, who landed 36 in victory. Santos outlanded his foe 15 to 14 in Round 1 and 23 to 7 in Round 3, while Rakic held a 15-to-11 edge in Round 2.
13: Bantamweight victories for Dominick Cruz, the most in UFC/WEC history. The former champion earned a hard-fought split decision triumph over Casey Kenney in a preliminary contest on Saturday night.
1,736: Days since Cruz’s last victory, a 135-pound title defense against Urijah Faber at UFC 199 on June 4, 2016. His next two appearances resulted in losses to Cody Garbrandt and Henry Cejudo.
89: Significant strikes landed by Cruz. By comparison, Kenney landed 74. Cruz outlanded his foe 26 to 23 in Round 1, 36 to 33 in Round 2 and 27 to 18 in Round 3.
3: Consecutive defeats for Joseph Benavidez, who had never lost back-to-back fights in his career until 2020. After dropping a pair of title fights to Deiveson Figueiredo, Benavidez fell to Askar Askarov via unanimous decision in a preliminary flyweight contest at UFC 259.
5: Takedowns landed in six attempts for Askarov, the most by a Benavidez opponent since Demetrious Johnson took him down five times at UFC 152 in a five-round affair. Askarov landed four of his attempts in the second round.
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5: Flyweight victories in UFC competition for Kai Kara France since 2018, tying him with Alexandre Pantoja for second most in the division during that timeframe. Only reigning champion Deiveson Figueiredo (seven) has won more. The Kiwi fighter earned his fifth triumph at UFC 259, rallying for a knockout late in the first round of his preliminary encounter with Rogerio Bontorin.
13:19: Control time for Tim Elliott against Jordan Espinosa, which accounts for nearly the duration of their three-round flyweight battle. Elliott also landed four of seven takedown attempts and held a 91-to-22 edge in total strikes in a lopsided unanimous decision triumph.
146: Significant strikes landed by UFC debutante Carlos Ulberg before falling to Kennedy Nzechukwu via knockout 3:19 into the second frame of their light heavyweight encounter. Nzechukwu landed 82 significant strikes in victory, including the fight’s lone knockdown.
64: Significant strike deficit for Nzechukwu in victory, the greatest statistical comeback in UFC light heavyweight history and the third best ever. The all-time record at any weight class occurred when Derrick Lewis rallied from an 82 significant strike deficit to finish Alexander Volkov in the third round of their heavyweight clash at UFC 229.
4: Consecutive victories for Sean Brady, who tapped out Jake Matthews with an arm-triangle choke 3:28 into Round 3 of their preliminary welterweight clash. That streak ties Brady with four other fighters — Michael Chiesa, Belal Muhammad, James Krause and Muslim Salikhov — for the third-longest active winning streak in the promotion at 170 pounds. Only Kamaru Usman (13) and Leon Edwards (eight) have longer winning streaks.
133: Total strikes landed by Brady. By comparison, Matthews landed 42. The majority of Brady’s offense came on the canvas, as the Philadelphian secured 8:08 of control time to just four seconds for his opponent.
2: Knockdowns landed by Amanda Lemos en route to a first-round technical knockout victory against Livinha Souza at strawweight. Lemos is just the fourth female UFC fighter to score a pair of knockdowns in a fight, joining Amanda Nunes (vs. Cristiane Justino), Joanne Calderwood (vs. Valerie Letourneau) and Lucie Pudilova (vs. Sarah Moras) as the only women to accomplish that feat in the Octagon.
45: Significant strikes landed by Uros Medic — including 35 on the ground — in a technical knockout win over Aalon Cruz that ended 1:40 into the opening round. Cruz, meanwhile, failed to land a significant strike in defeat.
87: Significant strikes landed by Medic in a combined 3:52 of Octagon time in victories at UFC 259 and on Dana White’s Contender Series. He’s been hit just twice in those two bouts.