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.
The Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday traveled to Phoenix for the fifth time, as LFA 53 featured a record number of fights going the distance, a dominant performance for a new champion and an increasingly rare triangle choke submission.
JUDICIAL REVIEW: This event tied LFA 9 for the most decisions in promotional history with seven. All seven of those decisions were reached unanimously -- the most of any LFA event.
NOSE DIVE: After nine fights, seven went the distance, giving LFA 53 a finish rate of about 22.2 percent. This tied LFA 9 for the lowest finish rate at an event in the history of the organization. Compared to the previous event, LFA 52, this stands in sharp contrast, as seven of the nine fights there ended before the final bell, for a finish rate of around 77.8 percent.
RATE OF PLAY: With that low stoppage rate, 10 events in LFA history have now ended with finish rates below 50 percent. The promotion still holds an impressive finish rate of over 61 percent overall, with the other 44 events sporting finish rates of 50 percent or higher.
CLEAN SWEEP: By receiving twin scorecards of 50-45 and one of 50-44, Casey Kenney became the fifth fighter in LFA championship history to win every round in a title fight. Kenney joins Leandro Higo, Robert Watley, Kevin Aguilar and Sabina Mazo, all of whom have won by 50-45 margins or better on every scorecard in their respective title fights.
IT’S A BAD TIME, BOB!: In beating Brandon Royval by clear-cut decision, Kenney became the third fighter in LFA history to win a flyweight belt. With an injury scuttling Maikel Perez’s previously scheduled title defense against Kenney, the latter settled for an interim belt. His next bout figures to be a title unification against Perez.
ROYVAL FLUSH: In his sixth appearance under the LFA banner, Royval tied Nate Jennerman, Bobby Lee and Brendan Allen for the second-most fights in company history. All four of the fighters with six LFA bouts have records of 4-2 with the promotion. They all trail Damon Jackson, who has seven appearances.
TRIANGULATION: Scoring the only finish on the main card, Kamuela Kirk tapped Kevin Croom with a triangle choke and in doing so picked up the seventh triangle choke finish in LFA history. Accounting for just under five percent of all submissions in the LFA, the triangle choke is still the fifth-most frequently performed submission inside the promotion.
THAT’S THE WAY THE COOKIE CROOMBLES: Forced to tap to a triangle choke, Croom suffered his second submission loss in the LFA cage and became one of only seven fighters in company history to lose multiple times by submission.
IF ANY OF MY CIRCUITS OR GEARS WILL HELP, I’LL GLADLY DONATE THEM: Across his 11-fight career, Harvey Park had never won by decision, with his previous nine wins all coming by stoppage. While struggling with a compound fracture to his finger, he still managed to beat Leville Simpson on the scorecards.
GLASS CANNON: After losing by first-round knockout to Ryan Shell on the untelevised prelims, all 16 of Jimmy Scully’s career bouts -- win or lose -- have ended by stoppage within two rounds.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into LFA 53, neither Kenney nor Royval had ever competed beyond the third round (11 fights each), Andrew Tenneson had never won by decision (seven fights) and Hunter Azure had never fought a full 15 minutes (three pro fights, eight amateur fights).