By the Numbers: UFC Noche

Tristen CritchfieldSep 17, 2023

It wasn’t necessarily the statement she might have been hoping to make, but Alexa Grasso is still the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s flyweight queen.

With Mexican Independence Day serving as the backdrop for Noche UFC, Grasso retained her title by virtue of a split draw against Valentina Shevchenko in Saturday’s headliner at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The deciding factor proved to be a 10-8 Round 5 for Grasso submitted by cageside judge Mike Bell. Had he scored it 10-9 for Grasso, Shevchenko would have regained the crown via split decision. Instead, it’s Grasso who remains atop the division by the slimmest of margins.

Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 227, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.

6: Split draws in UFC championship history following the Grasso-Shevchenko 2 result. The others: Caol Uno vs. B.J. Penn (UFC 41); Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC 125); Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson (UFC 205); Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev (UFC 282) and Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC 256).

12: Unofficial media scorecards tracked by MMADecisions.com that awarded the fight to Grasso. Media members were almost perfectly split on how they viewed the fight, as 11 others saw the bout in favor of Shevchenko.

84: Significant strikes landed by Grasso. Shevchenko, meanwhile, landed 80. Grasso outlanded her opponent 28 to 15 in Round 2 and 20 to 19 in Round 4. Shevchenko outlanded Grasso 14 to 12 in Round 1, 9 to 4 in Round 3 and 23 to 20 in Round 5.

31: Significant clinch strikes landed by Grasso. Shevchenko landed just six in this area. That was the biggest advantage for either fighter in any striking category.

262: Total strikes landed by Grasso. By comparison, Shevchenko landed 199.

1: Knockdown for Grasso. By flooring Shevchenko in the second round, the Mexican standout became the first person to land a knockdown against “Bullet” in 16 UFC bouts. It was also Grasso’s first career knockdown in 12 promotional appearances.

4: Takedowns landed in seven attempts for Shevchenko, who also secured four takedowns in an upset loss to Grasso at UFC 285 this past March. Shevchenko also enjoyed 8:37 of Octagon control time on Saturday. Grasso landed one of two takedowns and secured 2:39 of control time.

356: Significant strikes attempted by Kevin Holland in a split-decision loss to Jack Della Maddalena in the welterweight co-main event.While Holland’s output was much greater than his opponent, who attempted 190 significant strikes, he wasn’t nearly as efficient. Maddalena landed 105 significant strikes for a 55% success rate, while Holland landed 125 — a 35% clip.

59: Significant head strikes for Holland. Maddalena meanwhile, landed 46 significant strikes to the head. The Aussie held a 36-to-33 edge in significant body strikes, while Holland outlanded his foe 35 to 23 in significant leg strikes.

6: Consecutive victories for Maddalena, tying him with Ian Garry for the longest active winning streak in the UFC’s welterweight division. The Scrappy MMA product has won 15 straight professional outings overall.

18: Significant strikes landed by Raul Rosas in just 54 seconds against Terrence Mitchell in a featured bantamweight pairing. By comparison, “El Nino Problema” landed just two significant strikes over 15 minutes in a unanimous decision loss to Christian Rodriguez in his last UFC appearance.

.240: Significant striking accuracy for Daniel Zellhuber in Round 1 of his lightweight matchup with Christos Giagos. Zellhuber landed just 12 of 50 attempts in the frame and was rocked by punches from his opponent.

.470: Significant striking accuracy for Zellhuber in Round 2, when he landed 24 of 51 attempts en route to securing an anaconda choke at the 3:26 mark.

0: Takedowns landed in six attempts by Giagos. Zellhuber parlayed his opponent’s last attempt into the fight-ending maneuver.

5: Consecutive victories at strawweight for Lupita Godinez following a second-round submission of Elise Reed. That’s the second-longest active winning streak in the division behind Tatiana Suarez (six). Godinez’s streak was briefly interrupted by catchweight and flyweight bouts.

6: Submissions attempted by Godinez against Reed. That ties the record set by Nadia Kassem against Alex Chambers at UFC Fight Night 121 in 2017 for the most submissions attempted in a single strawweight fight in the Octagon.

26: Takedowns landed by Godinez at strawweight (She has 30 in UFC competition overall). That’s the third most in division history behind Carla Esparza (45) and Claudia Gadelha (36).

4: Consecutive KO/TKO victories for Roman Kopylov. That’s tied the second-longest active streak in the UFC behind heavyweight knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich (six). Koplov’s four consecutive triumphs are tied for the third-longest active winning streak in the middleweight division behind Dricus Du Plessis (six) and Andre Petroski (five). Koplov dispatched Josh Fremd with a body punch 4:44 into Round 2 of their preliminary showdown.

5: Consecutive victories for Tracy Cortez, who earned a unanimous verdict against Jasmine Jasudavicius in a preliminary flyweight affair. That ties her for the fourth-longest active winning streak among women in any weight class in the UFC. Tatiana Suarez owns the top spot with seven consecutive triumphs.

103: Significant strikes landed by Cortez, a career high in five Octagon appearances for the Fight Ready representative. Her previous best of 79 came in a decision win against Vanessa Mello in her promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 164. By comparison, Jasudavicius landed 79 significant strikes.

2,191: Days between Octagon appearances — and professional fights — for Alex Reyes, who suffered a first-round knockout loss to Mike Perry in his promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 116 on Sept. 16, 2017. Reyes also came up short in his second outing, falling to Charlie Campbell via technical knockout 3:38 into Round 1 on Saturday night.

73: Significant strike advantage for Josefine Knutsson in a lopsided unanimous verdict over Marnic Mann at strawweight. Knutsson outlanded her opponent 27 to 2 in Round 1, 32 to 2 in Round 2 and 22 to 4 in Round 3. Knutsson also held a 147-to-39 advantage in total strikes landed.

10:49: Total control time for Knutsson, who was successful on three of her four takedown attempts and outlanded her foe 35 to 0 in significant ground strikes.