After an evening filled with decisions, Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson ended UFC Fight Night 101 “Whittaker vs. Brunson” with a flourish.
Brunson lunged wildly at his Australian opponent and appeared to have him reeling early on, but Whittaker recovered to turn the tide by landing a stiff jab followed by a right high kick. With Brunson in a defensive shell, Whittaker pounded away with punches, forcing his opponent to the canvas and continuing to unload before the bout was halted. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 101, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
5: Consecutive middleweight victories for Whittaker, tying him with Michael Bisping and Krzysztof Jotko for the second-longest active streak in the division. No. 1 contender Yoel Romero is first with eight straight triumphs. Whittaker has won six consecutive bouts overall.
52: Combined significant strikes landed by Whittaker (33) and Brunson (19) during their 4:07 in the Octagon. Whittaker landed 56 percent of his significant strikes, while Brunson connected at a 45 percent clip.
25: Total significant strikes landed by Brunson’s previous five opponents, all victories for the North Carolina native.
10: Decisions among the 13 bouts at UFC Fight Night 101, tying it with UFC Fight Night “Silva vs. Bisping,” UFC Fight Night “Machida vs. Mousasi,” and UFC 169 for most decisions in a single event
8: Consecutive decision to begin Saturday night’s card in Melbourne. Tyson Pedro broke the streak with a first-round submission of Khalil Rountree in the evening’s ninth bout.
2:45:20: Total time of UFC Fight Night 101, making it the seventh-longest event in promotion history. UFC Fight Night 89 “MacDonald vs. Thompson” was the longest at 2:54:48.
50: Total strike advantage for Andrew Holbrook in rounds one (36-10) and three (32-8) combined during his split-decision triumph over Jake Matthews at lightweight. Holbrook held an 80-to-29 advantage overall in the co-main event bout.
3: Consecutive losses for Kyle Noke following a unanimous decision defeat to Omari Akhmedov, the longest losing streak of the Australian’s 33-bout professional career.
45: Significant ground strikes landed by Alexander Volkanovski in a second-round technical knockout victory against Yusuke Kasuya at lightweight. Volkanovski landed 50 significant strikes overall before putting the fight away with ground-and-pound 2:06 into the second frame.
8: Takedowns landed by Khalil Rountree’s two UFC opponents in a little less than four rounds of fight time. “The War Horse” was taken down twice before losing to Tyson Pedro via rear-naked choke 4:07 into the opening round of their light heavyweight scrap on Saturday night. Prior to that, Rountree was taken down six times by Andrew Sanchez in a decision loss at “The Ultimate Fighter 23” finale.
14: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 17 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the strawweight bout between Danielle Taylor and Seo Hee Ham in favor of Ham. However, judges Anthony Dimitriou and Evan Field thought otherwise, giving Taylor a split-decision triumph.
45: Significant strikes landed by Taylor; Ham landed 31. Taylor outlanded her opponent 13 to 9 in round two and 23 to 11 in round three; meanwhile, Ham held an 11-to-9 edge in the opening stanza.
105: Total strikes landed by Jonathan Meunier in a three-round verdict over Richard Walsh at welterweight. By comparison, Walsh landed just 33. Meunier also held a 74-to-18 advantage in significant strikes landed
83: Significant strikes by which Ben Nguyen outlanded Geane Herrera, the third-largest differential in UFC flyweight history. Nguyen outlanded his foe 39 to 7 in round one, 36 to 8 in round two and 30 to 7 in round three en route to a unanimous decision triumph.
4: Takedowns landed in 13 attempts for Jason Knight in his decision victory against Daniel Hooker at featherweight. Hooker, meanwhile, did not attempt a single takedown. In his first two Octagon appearances, Knight’s opponents held a 10-to-1 takedown advantage against him. Knight also attempted four submissions in the bout.