In a battle of towering heavyweights, Volkov defeated Stefan Struve via third-round technical knockout in the UFC Fight Night 115 headliner in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Saturday. The Russian known as “Drago” survived a nasty cut from a Struve knee in the opening round and multiple eye pokes to overwhelm the 7-foot Dutchman with clean right hands and uppercuts down the stretch.
Volkov’s third straight Octagon triumph ties him for the third-longest active winning streak in the always wide open heavyweight division. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 115, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
135: Significant strikes landed by Volkov before the main event was halted 3:30 into round three. That’s 94 more than Struve landed, making it the most lopsided differential of the Netherlands native’s 19-bout UFC tenure. Volkov outlanded his foe 38 to 14 in round one, 56 to 11 in round two and 41 to 16 in round three.
84: Significant head strikes landed by Volkov. By comparison, Struve landed 26.
33: Significant leg strikes for Volkov. Meanwhile, Struve landed just seven.
6: KO/TKO defeats in UFC competition for Struve, who has also been stopped by Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, Travis Browne, Roy Nelson and Junior dos Santos.
4:54: Time of Marion Reneau’s third-round technical knockout victory over Talita de Oliveira Bernardo in their bantamweight bout, making it the fifth latest KO/TKO in a three-round fight in UFC history. The latest: Garreth McLellan stopped Bubba Bush via knockout 4:58 into round three at UFC Fight Night 76 in October 2015.
118: Total strikes landed by Reneau. By comparison, Bernardo landed 38.
5: Submissions attempted in the fight by Reneau. “The Belizean Bruiser” attempted two submissions in round one and three in the final stanza before winning via late TKO.
57: Total strike advantage for Bryan Barberena in a loss to Leon Edwards at welterweight. That included a 68-to-19 edge in round two, when “Bam Bam” dropped his foe with an uppercut and pounced for a finish on the canvas with ground-and-pound. However, Edwards’ three takedowns and three submission attempts helped him win the other two frames on the judges’ scorecards.
5: Consecutive KO/TKO finishes for Mairbek Taisumov in the Octagon following his one-punch knockout of Felipe Silva. The end came 1:24 into the opening frame, moving Taisumov into an eight-way tie for the second-longest knockout streak in UFC history. Chuck Liddell is No. 1 all-time with seven consecutive KO/TKO finishes in the Octagon.
2: Significant strikes landed by Taisumov in the fight.
1: Fighter in UFC history to have earned two victories via north-south choke after Michel Prazeres accomplished the feat in Rotterdam. In addition to tapping Mads Burnell with the maneuver at UFC Fight Night 115, “Trator” also submitted Joshua Burkman with a north-south choke at UFC Fight Night 106 in March. Prazeres owns two of the five finishes by the submission in promotion history.
14: Guard passes executed by Prazeres, who also landed four of six takedown attempts.
5: Consecutive decision victories for Rustam Khabilov, who outpointed Desmond Green in a lightweight tilt on Saturday. That ties him for the third-longest active winning streak in the division behind only Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. The 30-year-old Dagestani is 7-2 during his UFC tenure and 21-3 as a professional overall.
13: Significant strikes by which Green outlanded Khabilov. After being taken down three times in the opening stanza, “The Predator” thwarted all seven of Khabilov’s attempts over the bout’s final 10 minutes.
.690: Significant striking accuracy for Zabit Magomedsharipov in his second-round submission triumph against Mike Santiago at featherweight. Magomedsharipov landed 45 of 65 significant strike attempts in his Octagon debut. By comparison, Santiago landed 24 of 67 significant strikes, a 35 percent clip.
76: Significant strikes by which Adbul-Kerim Edilov outlanded Bojan Mihajlovic in their light heavyweight encounter. Edilov landed 62 of his significant strikes on the ground en route to a technical knockout stoppage at the 2:32 mark of round two.
7: Fighters who were making their Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 115, the most of any card thus far in 2015. The newcomers were as follows: Abdul-Kerim Edilov, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Mike Santiago, Aleksandar Rakic, Mads Burnell, Talita de Oliveira Bernardo and Rob Wilkinson.