Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 209
Returning to Israel for the third straight November, Bellator MMA on Thursday brought Bellator 209 to the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv. The event featured the winningest fighter in promotional history, one of the youngest fights the company has ever promoted and the unique occurrence of a father and son competing on the same card.
FIRST WAVE INTACT: Three fighters came in to Bellator 209 undefeated with at least four career bouts under their belt -- Olga Rubin, Denis Palancica and Simon Smotritsky -- and all three ended their nights with their perfect records intact.
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE: Of the 16 fights at Bellator 209, 10 went to a decision, setting the record for the most decisions at an event in Bellator history. This event broke the record (nine) set by Bellator 165 in 2016.
IT’S A PLUS: Five fights ended by first-round knockout at Bellator 209, which tied six other shows for the sixth-most first-round knockouts at an event in Bellator history. Bellator 199 and 204 hold the most with seven each.
GOIN’ DOWN SLOW: Bellator 209 was the first event since Bellator 189 in 2017 to end with at least four consecutive decisions.
TO HONOR YOU, SHIDOSHI: For the first time ever in a major promotion, a father and son competed on the same card, as Haim Gozali took on Ryan Couture and son Aviv Gozali faced Anton Lazebnov.
PITBULL TENACITY: By beating Emmanuel Sanchez by decision, Patricio Freire became the winningest fighter in Bellator history with 16 wins over eight and a half years.
BASH BROTHERS: The bout with Sanchez was Freire’s 20th inside the Bellator cage, tying him with his brother Patricky Freire and David Rickels for the most in promotional history.
KIRILLIN OWNED COUNT: Two fighters named Kirill -- Kirill Sidelnikov and Kirill Medvedovsky -- competed at Bellator 209, and both suffered defeats at the hands of their undefeated opponents.
VADECISION: In defeating Phil Davis by split decision, Vadim Nemkov won his first decision as a pro. His previous nine wins all came by stoppage.
I GET OLDER, THEY STAY THE SAME AGE: When 17-year-old Gozali took on fellow 17-year-old Lazebnov, their combined age marked their bout as one of the youngest in Bellator history. When Aviv was born, father Haim had already competed in three MMA bouts.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into Bellator 209, Jackie Gosh had never been stopped (eight fights), Couture had never won a fight outside of the United States (17 fights) and Sanchez had never fought beyond the third round (20 fights).
LIGHTNING DODGER: Historically “Thunderstruck” is unsuccessful as a walkout song over in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Freire defied the odds by walking out to the AC/DC track and won a decision. Fighters that use “Thunderstruck” have the lowest winning percentage (.333) of any walkout song with at least 20 recorded UFC uses.
NEMO SAILING HOME: Making his walk to the cage accompanied by “Nemo” from symphonic metal band Nightwish, Nemkov has not suffered a recorded loss while using the track. Using the song at least twice inside the Bellator cage, Nemkov has walked out to Nightwish more times than every fighter in the UFC combined. The only recorded UFC fighter to ever use a Nightwish song was Jan Blachowicz, who was accompanied by “Eramaan Viimeinen” ahead of a win at UFC on Fox 26 in 2017.
Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.