Fight Facts: PFL 6 2019 Regular Season

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all 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.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL FIGHTS: 545
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 55

The Professional Fighters League on Thursday in Atlantic City, New Jersey, concluded its regular season schedule with light heavyweights and heavyweights on display. PFL 6: 2019 Regular Season closed the book on a campaign with a far lower finish rate than the previous year while also featuring a fighter scoring a record-setting first-round finish and one of the rarest chokes out there.

HEY, WHA HAPPENED?: After 62 regular-season fights in the PFL in 2019, the finish rate was a paltry 48.4 percent, or almost 15 percentage points lower than the 2018 regular-season stoppage rate of 63.2 percent.

QUICK SIXES FOR EVERYBODY: Despite a significantly lower finish rate, the 2019 regular season featured 23 first-round stoppage, only one fewer than a year ago, even though the 2018 season held 14 more fights.

NOBODY EARNED TWELVE POINTS: With about the same number of first-round finishes from this year compared to last, not a single fighter had multiple stoppages in Round 1 this season. Four fighters -- Abusupiyan Magomedov, Francimar Barroso, Steven Siler and Vinny Magalhaes -- stopped two opponents in the opening stanza in the 2018 regular season.

‘THE BIG SHOW’ GOES SLOW: All four of Jared Rosholt’s victories inside the organization have come by decision following a unanimous verdict over Satoshi Ishii, setting the record for the most wins for a PFL heavyweight on the scorecards.

MAGNUM MAGALHAES: After needing less than a round to tap Rakim Cleveland with an armbar, Magalhaes has now finished six opponents in the first round inside the World Series of Fighting-PFL cage, extending his record for the most in promotional history.

WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ ROUNDS: All six of Magalhaes’ first-round stoppages have taken place in under two minutes. The only other fighter with even three sub-two-minute finishes in the organization is Joao Zeferino; seven fighters have two.

PARTY WITH VINNY: With six finishes in total, Magalhaes tied Lance Palmer for the third-most stoppage wins in company history. As five of those six came by submission, he and Palmer are also tied for the most submission victories under the WSOF-PFL banner.

58 MPH FASTER AND YOU’LL GO BACK IN TIME: Taking the fifth seed at light heavyweight by taking a split decision over Rashid Yusupov, Viktor Nemkov held on to the record for the fastest strike of the tournament when he threw a punch at Cleveland that was clocked at 30.63 mph at PFL 3 2019.

MY POWER IS MAXIMUM: Maxim Grishin needed just 48 seconds to dispatch Mikhail Mokhnatkin, earning the second-fastest finish in the PFL’s light heavyweight division. Emiliano Sordi holds the quickest, as he scored a 16-second finish of Jason Butcher at PFL 7 2018.

GOT THAT NURMAGOMEDOV SHINE: In the only non-tournament bout of the season, Umar Nurmagomedov improved his unbeaten record to 11-0 by beating Sidemar Honorio on the scorecards. Although the WSOF previously held a bantamweight division, this was the first fight at 135 pounds in the organization since Timur Valiev tapped Josenaldo Silva at a PFL Fight Night in 2017.

RUSSIANS AND THEIR EZEKIELS: By picking up an elusive Ezekiel choke finish over Kelvin Tiller, Denis Goltsov recorded the first submission of its kind in WSOF-PFL history. Across other organizations, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has seen it twice performed by Alexey Oleynik, while Hidehiko Yoshida scored one in Pride Fighting Championships.

EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY FINISHER: By forcing Tiller to tap, Goltsov earned his 20th career stoppage victory. He now holds 10 wins by knockout and another 10 by submission.

WHERE DID HE COME FROM?: Sordi picked up the top seed at light heavyweight by demolishing Bozigit Ataev in under 90 seconds. All 19 of Sordi’s wins have come by stoppage within two rounds, and he has only gone the distance once.

A TRUE FLORIDA MAN: After putting away Ezekiel Wily in just over three minutes, all 14 of Alex Nicholson’s wins have come by finish before the end of the second round.

WAY OFF THE MARKES: Ronny Markes missed weight for the second time in the PFL 2019 Regular Season, and as a result was ejected from the organization. Opponent Dan Spohn was awarded three points for the walkover win, but unfortunately for him, those points were not enough to qualify him for the tournament.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into PFL 6 2019, Yusupov had never lost on the scorecards (12 fights), Mokhnatkin had never been knocked out (17 fights) and Valdrin Istrefi (16 fights) and Tiller (13 fights) had never been finished.

Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working 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.