Not only did Rafael Fiziev win the battle of the Rafaels at UFC on ESPN 39, but he took a significant step toward title contention in the process.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC on ESPN 39, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
6: Consecutive victories for Fiziev, the fourth-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s lightweight division behind Charles Oliveira (11), Islam Makhachev (nine) and Beneil Dariush (seven).
64: Significant strikes landed by Fiziev. By comparison, dos Anjos landed 54. Fiziev outlanded his opponent 14 to 9 in Round 1, 17 to 9 in Round 3 and 4 to 2 in Round 5. Dos Anjos outlanded Fiziev 19 to 17 in Round 2 and 15 to 12 in Round 4.
27: Significant body strikes for Fiziev. Dos Anjos, meanwhile, landed 12 to the body.
14: Takedowns successfully defended by Fiziev. Dos Anjos landed just two of his 16 attempts in the lighrweight bout.
32: Career UFC appearances for dos Anjos, tying him with Diego Sanchez for No. 7 all-time in promotion history.
11: Main event bouts for dos Anjos. Fiziev, meanwhile, was competing in his first headlining fight at UFC on ESPN 39.
10:09: Total control time for Caio Borralho in a unanimous decision triumph over fellow Dana White’s Contender Series alum Armen Petrosyan at middleweight. The Brazilian was successful on four of five takedowns to offset a 31-to-12 deficit in significant strikes landed.
246: Combined significant strikes landed by Chase Sherman (137) and Jared Vanderaa (109) in a heavyweight slugfest. Sherman outlanded his opponent by a 51-to-36 count in Round 3 en route to earning a stoppage at the 3:10 mark of the period.
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.110: Significant striking accuracy for Ricky Turcios in a unanimous decision loss to Aiemann Zahabi in a featured featherweight bout. Turcios landed just 27 of 235 attempts. Zahabi was much more accurate, landing 54 of 105 tries for a 51 percent success rate.
96: Significant strikes landed by Jamie Mullarkey in a split-decision triumph over Michael Johnson at lightweight. That’s a career high in six UFC appearances for the Aussie. Johnson, meanwhile, landed 66 significant strikes in defeat.
16: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 20 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the fight for Johnson. “The Menace” had the bout’s only knockdown, but Mullarkey may have turned the tide in the judges’ eyes during a second stanza in which he held a 45-to-18 advantage in significant strikes.
55: Significant strikes landed by Antonina Shevchenko in a split-decision victory against Cortney Casey at flyweight. By comparison, Casey landed 33. Shevchenko landed 26 significant strikes to the head, 15 to the body and 14 to the legs in a well-rounded effort on the feet. All but one of her 55 significant strikes were landed at range.
9: Career losses for Casey, the third most among female UFC fighters in any weight class.
1-4: Record for Casey in bouts that end via split decision, with her only victory coming against Angela Hill at UFC Fight Night 135 in August 2018. She is tied with Hill, Clay Guida, Paul Felder and Jorge Masvidal for the most split-decision losses in promotion history.
5: Takedowns landed in seven attempts by Kennedy Nzechukwu in a third-round technical knockout victory against Karl Roberson at light heavyweight. The Fortis MMA product had failed to landed a single takedown in his first six UFC appearances. Nzechukwu also held a 65-to-16 edge in total strikes and enjoyed 10:46 of control time.
10: Takedowns landed in 16 attempts by Saidyokub Kakhramonov in a unanimous decision triumph over Ronnie Lawrence at bantamweight. In his previous three appearances — two in the UFC and one on the Contender Series — Lawrence held a 26-0 edge in takedowns landed against his opposition.
99: Total strikes by which Kakhramonov outlanded Lawrence. The Uzbekistan native also enjoyed 12:19 of control time in the bout.