Jake Shields was relentless at UFC Fight Night 29. | Photo: Marcelo Alonso
Demian Maia’s welterweight title hopes hit a nasty speed bump on Wednesday night. Headlining the UFC Fight Night 29 card in front of his countrymen in Barueri, Brazil, Maia dropped a grueling split decision to fellow grappling ace Jake Shields. After posting three straight victories to begin his 170-pound tenure, Maia was unable to mount enough offense – either on the ground or on the feet – to sway the cageside judges’ opinion in his favor. Shields, meanwhile, has been victorious in his last four outings.
12-1: Record for Maia in bouts in which he lands at least one takedown. The decorated grappler was undefeated in those contests until losing to Shields in Wednesday’s headliner. Overall, Maia landed three of his seven takedown attempts, while Shields succeeded just once in 12 tries.
1: Round in which at least one of the main event competitors landed 10 significant strikes. Maia accomplished the feat in the final frame, when he held a 10-8 advantage in significant strikes.
195: Combined total strikes landed by Maia and Shields. While Maia narrowly outlanded Shields 98-97 overall, each fighter had a dominant frame: Shields outlanded Maia 33 to 5 in round two, while Maia owned a 36 to six advantage in round four.
0: Submission attempts combined for Maia and Shields. Coming into the bout, the pair had 19 career submission victories between them.
11: UFC events held in Brazil after Wednesday’s card in Barueri. Promotion head Dana White recently said that the Las Vegas-based organization plans on holding 13 events in the South American country in 2014 alone.
1,964: Days since Kim’s last stoppage victory, which came in his promotional debut against Jason Tan at UFC 84. “Stun Gun” landed a huge overhand left to knock out Silva 3:01 into the second round of their welterweight conflict on Wednesday night.
17: Significant strikes by which Silva outlanded Kim. In the decisive second round, Silva held an 18-to-6 edge in significant strikes.
96: Significant strikes landed by Thiago Silva in his victory over Matt Hamill, a career high for the Brazilian light heavyweight. Silva’s previous best of 62 came last year against Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on Fuel TV 6.
47: Average significant strikes by which Fabio Maldonado has outlanded Joey Beltran (87-57), Roger Hollett (100-29) and James McSweeney (89-49) in his three UFC wins. The former professional boxer also outlanded Igor Pokrajac by 62 significant strikes in a unanimous decision defeat at UFC on Fuel TV 3.
5.72: Significant strikes landed per minute by Maldonado during his UFC career, the fourth-highest figure in the promotion.
2: Fighters in the modern era to have earned two tapouts in the Octagon in less than a minute. Rousimar Palhares captured his second such victory at UFC Fight Night 29 by submitting Mike Pierce with a heel hook 31 seconds into their welterweight showdown. Previously, “Toquinho” stopped Tomas Drwal with a heel hook in 45 seconds at UFC 111. Frank Mir has three submission victories (Tim Sylvia, Pete Williams, David “Tank” Abbot) in less than a minute.
5: UFC triumphs via heel hook for Palhares. Overall, the Brazilian is 11-0 in bouts that ended by submission. He is 4-5 in fights that ended via decision or knockout.
4: Victories in bouts examined by FightMetric.com in which Palhares has not landed a single significant strike. In addition to his triumph over Pierce, the Team Nogueira representative also bested Flavio Luiz Moura, Ivan Salaverry, and Drwal without landing a significant strike.
6: Takedowns defended in six attempts by T.J. Dillashaw in his split-decision defeat to Raphael Assuncao. Despite the setback, the Team Alpha Male product has yet to be taken down in UFC competition.
3: Significant strikes by which Assuncao outlanded Dillashaw in the closely contested bantamweight clash. Neither fighter held more than a three-strike advantage in any frame. Assuncao outlanded Dillashaw in round one (10 to 7) and two (11 to 8), while Dillashaw had the edge in round three (14 to 11).
128: Total strikes landed by Igor Araujo in his three-round verdict over Ildemar Alcantara. The “TUF 16” cast member outlanded his foe in every round, including a 67-to-3 edge in round three.
11: Guard passes executed by Yan Cabral in his unanimous decision triumph over fellow Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt David Mitchell. The debuting Brazilian controlled positioning for much of the welterweight bout and also landed four of his six takedown attempts.
19: Significant strikes by which Chris Cariaso outlanded Iliarde Santos in the second round of their flyweight scrap. After both combatants landed 10 significant strikes in the opening frame, the American picked up the pace to earn a TKO 4:31 into the second stanza.