Rafael dos Anjos just keeps raising the bar in what is arguably the sport’s most dangerous division.
The stat sheet backs it up: dos Anjos is the unquestioned lightweight king and one of the top pound-for-pound talents in mixed martial arts today. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC on Fox 17, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
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1:06: Official time of dos Anjos’ triumph, making it the fastest finish in a lightweight title bout in UFC history.
26: Significant strikes landed, in 44 attempts, by dos Anjos in those 66 seconds of action. Cerrone landed just four of seven significant strikes.
14: Career UFC wins for dos Anjos, tying him with Jim Miller for third most in the history of the division. Only Cerrone (15) and Gleison Tibau (17) have more.
10-1: Record for dos Anjos since 2012. After beginning his career with a 4-4 mark, the Kings MMA product has been on a roll, losing only to Khabib Nurmagomedov during his run to lightweight gold.
0-4: Record for Cerrone in championship fights. “Cowboy” lost three title bouts in World Extreme Cagefighting, falling twice to Benson Henderson and once to Jamie Varner.
2: Career defeats via knockout or technical knockout in 36 professional outings for Cerrone. Dos Anjos joined Anthony Pettis as the only two men to stop the Jackson-Wink MMA representative via strikes.
36: Finishes among 40 professional triumphs for Alistair Overeem, who dispatched Junior dos Santos via technical knockout 4:43 into round two of their heavyweight co-headlining clash.
.740: Significant striking accuracy for Overeem (32 for 43). Heading into UFC on Fox 17, Overeem’s 74.5 percent significant striking rate ranked No. 1 among all UFC fighters, with Trevor Smith a distant second at 63.7 percent. Anderson Silva is third with a 63.2 percent significant striking accuracy.
5: Victories over former or current UFC titlists for Overeem, who earned his latest such triumph against dos Santos. The Dutchman has also bested Frank Mir, Brock Lesnar, Fabricio Werdum and Vitor Belfort over the course of his MMA career.
153: Significant strikes landed by Nate Diaz in his unanimous decision triumph over Michael Johnson, the most of anyone on Saturday’s card and the second-highest figure of his UFC tenure. The Stockton, Calif., native outlanded his opponent 69 to 37 in round one and 63 to 36 in round three. Johnson, meanwhile, held a 30-to-21 edge in significant strikes in the opening period.
.510: Significant striking accuracy for Diaz, who landed 153 of his 300 attempts. By comparison, Johnson landed 103 of 301 significant strikes, a 34 percent success rate.
135: Significant strikes to the head landed by Diaz. Johnson, meanwhile, landed 44 blows to the head.
31: Significant strikes to the legs landed by Johnson; Diaz landed 11.
32: Significant strikes by which Karolina Kowalkiewicz outlanded Randa Markos in her UFC debut. The Polish fighter also outlanded her foe 104 to 56 in total strikes and defended eight of nine takedown attempts during the strawweight bout.
8: UFC submission wins for Charles Oliveira, who tapped Myles Jury with a guillotine choke 3:05 into the opening round of their featherweight clash. That ties “Do Bronx” with Nate Diaz and Frank Mir for the most submission victories in modern UFC history.
4: Takedowns landed, in nine attempts, by former kickboxing champion Valentina Shevchenko in her split-decision triumph over Sarah Kaufman. Shevchenko owns a 60-2 career mark as a kickboxer.
142: Total strikes landed by Kaufman. By comparison, Shevchenko landed 66 total strikes. However, the Tiger Muay Thai representative did have a 32-to-27 edge in significant strikes.
2,324: Days since Tamdan McCrory’s last promotional appearance, at split-decision loss to John Howard at UFC 101. “The Barn Cat” made a triumphant return at UFC on Fox 17, submitting Josh Samman with a triangle choke at the 4:10 mark of round three.
50: Total strikes by which McCrory outlanded Samman in rounds two and three combined. That was in stark contrast to the opening frame, where Samman held a 26-to-3 advantage in total strikes landed.
12: Takedowns landed by Kamaru Usman in his first two Octagon appearances, triumphs over Leon Edwards and Hayder Hassan. “The Nigerian Nightmare” landed six of 13 tries in taking a unanimous verdict against Edwards on Saturday.
10: Anaconda choke submissions in UFC history after Vicente Luque accomplished the feat against Hayder Hassan in a preliminary welterweight clash. Luque forced his opponent to tap with the maneuver 2:13 into the opening stanza.