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Fight Facts: UFC 239




Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities 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 UFC FIGHTS: 5211
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 484

The Ultimate Fighting Championship put on a show in Las Vegas with UFC 239 with a wild championship doubleheader. The event featured the fastest knockout in UFC history, a bantamweight destroyer with a slew of records and a champion in uncharted territory.

TAKE A LOOK BACK: On Friday before the UFC 239 card, the UFC inducted Rich Franklin, Michael Bisping and Rashad Evans into the Hall of Fame. Check out our Retrospective pieces on the remarkable careers of Bisping and Evans.

JON ST. JONES: By beating Thiago Santos by split decision to defend his light heavyweight strap, Jon Jones tied Georges St. Pierre with the most victories in UFC title fights with 13. JONNY TWO-TIMES: Jones is the second UFC champion to ever hold the belt on multiple occasions and defend it at least twice on both title reigns. Matt Hughes performed this feat first, in his championship run in 2001-2003 and again from 2004-2006.

YOU HAVE MY SYMPATHIES: Jones has not lost since December 2009, when he was disqualified while facing Matt Hamill. That unbeaten stretch of 17 consecutive bouts is the longest in UFC history.

MY FIRST ACT AS QUEEN: Amanda Nunes is the first champion in promotional history with a division that held more than three champions to ever defeat every previous titleholder, demolishing Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey and now Holly Holm.

THE ULTIMATE RESUME: Nunes has beaten every other champion inside the Octagon at bantamweight and featherweight -- with knockouts over Cristiane Justino and Germaine de Randamie -- and also holds two wins over Valentina Shevchenko, the current flyweight queen. Additionally, she smashed the only Bellator MMA featherweight champ, Julia Budd, in 14 seconds at a 2011 Strikeforce event.

THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE: Nunes is the first fighter in UFC history to win a belt in a second weight class and drop down to the lower division to defend that first belt.

TWO BOMBERS FROM BRAZIL: With 11 wins, Nunes ties strawweight champ Jessica Andrade for the most wins in women's divisional history.

WHAT CAN'T SHE DO? Nunes also holds the following additional records in women's divisions: longest win streak (nine), most finishes (nine), most first-round stoppages (eight), most knockouts (seven) and most wins at bantamweight (10).

NUNES IS NASTY: Sixteen of Nunes' 18 wins have come by stoppage after finishing Holm, including 13 in the opening round. Both of her decision wins came over Shevchenko.

CUTTETH THY CHECK: With Nunes picking up "Performance of the Night" honors by stopping Holm, all five fights involving female fighters ending by head kick have been awarded post-fight bonuses.

A HEAD KICK FOR HOLLY: As she was finished by a head kick, Holm became the first female fighter -- and seventh fighter overall -- in UFC history to ever win and lose a fight by head kick.

WAS IT EVEN FIVE? Jorge Masvidal annihilated Ben Askren with a flying knee in five seconds, scoring the fastest knockout in UFC history.

NO, REALLY, WELCOME TO THE UFC: Askren had never been defeated coming into this event, winning 19 of his 20 bouts, and the lone blemish a no contest after an eye poke against Luis Santos in 2015.

STILL THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA: Former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champ Luke Rockhold had competed at 185 pounds for his entire career before moving up to light heavyweight to face Jan Blachowicz. The change did not bode well, as Rockhold was knocked out in the second round.

ROCKHOLD GOT ROCKED: Across 21 career fights, Rockhold has still only gone the distance twice. His first decision came over Ronaldo Souza to earn the Strikeforce title in 2011, and his second when he defended that belt against Tim Kennedy in 2012. All five of his losses have come by knockout.

DECISION DIEGO: For the 20th time in his UFC career, Diego Sanchez went the distance when he lost a decision to Michael Chiesa. Sanchez has reached the scorecards more times than any other fighter in company history. Only five other fighters have put their fates in the hands of the judges over 15 times in their respective careers: Rafael dos Anjos and Frankie Edgar (16 each), Gleison Tibau (17), and Demian Maia and Jeremy Stephens (18 each).

CHITOS SOMETIMES PROSPER: Submitting the debuting Nohelin Hernandez with a rear-naked choke, Marlon Vera picked up his sixth finish as a bantamweight. This ties "Chito" with Pedro Munhoz and Urijah Faber for the second-most stoppage wins in divisional history, and only T.J. Dillashaw holds more (eight).

PRIDE OF EDMOND: Staying undefeated at 10-0 by tapping out Jack Marshman with a rear-naked choke in just 72 seconds, nine of Edmen Shahbazyan's 10 wins have come by first-round stoppage. The submission was the first in his career, finishing the others with strikes.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC 239, Holm had never been knocked out (16 fights), Rockhold (20 fights) and Alejandro Perez (29 fights) had never lost consecutive bouts and Ismail Naurdiev had never competed outside of Europe (20 fights).

NO LOVE FOR EMINEM: Randa Markos walked out to No Love" by Eminem featuring Lil Wayne, and lost a decision to Claudia Gadelha. Four of the last five fighters to walk out to Eminem tracks have lost.

TRAPPED IN THE 90S: A first for recorded UFC walkout music, Pannie Kianzad made her walk to the Octagon accompanied by 90s dance hit "Be My Lover" by La Bouche. Her first UFC outing last year also featured a song we had never heard before -- Mr. Vain by Culture Beat. Kianzad lost both of those bouts.

Contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the "Eminem Curse" in 2012, and penning 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.
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