It didn’t take long for a new threat to Anderson Silva’s middleweight title to emerge. Just four days after the champion defeated Chael Sonnen for the second time at UFC 148, Chris Weidman gave a performance worthy of a No. 1 contender in vanquishing Mark Munoz at the UFC on Fuel TV 4 main event on Wednesday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
While Weidman’s triumph was easily the most significant moment of the evening, there were plenty of other good scraps on the card, including a highly entertaining light heavyweight slugfest between James Te Huna and Joey Beltran. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC on Fuel TV 4, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
.760: Significant striking accuracy for Weidman, who stopped Munoz with an elbow to the head and follow-up punches at 1:37 of the second round in Wednesday’s middleweight main event. Weidman landed 13 of his 16 significant strikes in round one and 15 of 21 significant strikes in round two.
2: Submission attempts by Weidman. It was the first time that the Serra-Longo representative attempted a submission in a UFC bout without eliciting a tapout. Weidman submitted Tom Lawlor and Jesse Bongfeldt on his first submission attempt in bouts at UFC 139 and UFC 131, respectively.
1,222: Days since Munoz’s last knockout loss, a head-kick KO from Matt Hamill in his Octagon debut at UFC 96.
0: Significant strikes landed by Munoz, the only time in his UFC and WEC career he has gone without landing a power strike. His previous low of four came in a 54-second knockout of C.B. Dollaway at UFC on Versus 3.
James Te Huna File Photo
Te Huna set a striking record.
3: Difference in significant strikes landed by Te Huna in that furious opening round and rounds two (26) and three (31) combined. Although Beltran wasn’t able to win a round on any judge’s scorecard, he made things much more interesting over the final 10 minutes, landing a combined 54 significant strikes of his own.
597: Total combined strikes thrown by Te Huna (301) and Beltran (296). Te Huna was more accurate, landing 57 percent of his total strikes compared to Beltran’s 30 percent.
64: Advantage in total strikes over the second and third frames combined for debuting welterweight Aaron Simpson against Kenny Robertson. The Power MMA member outlanded his opponent 39 to 7 in round two and 38 to 5 in round three, while securing two takedowns apiece in both frames.
177: Weight, in pounds, by Simpson during his senior year as a wrestler at Arizona State University. The “A-Train’s” first eight fights in the UFC came as a middleweight. Simpson is now 37 years old.
7: Combined significant strikes landed by Francis Carmont and Karlos Vemola in their middleweight clash. The grappling-based affair featured four submission attempts between the two men before Carmont ended it with a rear-naked choke 1:39 into round two.
149: Difference in total strikes landed by T.J. Dillashaw in his January win over Walel Watson (154) and his first-round submission triumph against Vaughn Lee (five) on Wednesday night.
6: Successful takedowns in 17 attempts by Rafael dos Anjos -- a career high for him in the UFC -- in scoring a three-round verdict against Anthony Njokuani. The Brazilian was at his most persistent in the second frame, when he landed three takedowns in nine attempts against the WEC veteran.
4: Consecutive submission losses for Damacio Page after “The Angel of Death” fell victim to an Alex Caceres triangle choke. Demetrious Johnson, Brian Bowles and Brad Pickett forced tapouts from the Jackson’s MMA product in his previous three bouts. All but one of Page’s eight career defeats have come by submission.
.714: Percentage of Chris Cariaso’s victories that have come via decision. “Kamikaze” earned the 10th such triumph of his career against “TUF 14” alumnus Josh Ferguson in his flyweight debut. The Fight and Fitness representative has only lost once -- a split-decision defeat to Michael McDonald -- in bouts that went the distance.
2: Head kick knockout defeats for Rafael Natal in his 18-fight career after Andrew Craig floored the Brazilian with eight seconds remaining in the second round of their UFC on Fuel TV 4 meeting. Previously, “Sapo” was felled with a head kick by Eduardo Telles in 2008.