Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 156

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all 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: 5,272
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 489

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday planted its flag in Uruguay with a card headlined by a South American champion. UFC Fight Night 156 featured a couple of thrilling fights with gruesome results, a few undefeated fighters debuting with wins and one of the fastest submissions seen in women’s competition.

HERE’S TO 25 MORE: This was the 25th event in the history of the UFC to feature women in the headlining slot.

TRIANGULUM SPECTACULAR: This was the seventh card in company history to display multiple arm-triangle chokes. Both Rodolfo Vieira and Ciryl Gane pulled them off in their respective UFC debuts.

A NEW STAR ATTRACTION: The title fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Liz Carmouche was the second women’s flyweight bout to serve as the main event. The first came at the “The Ultimate Fighter 16” Finale, where Nicco Montano won the inaugural belt against Roxanne Modafferi in 2017.

LORD OF THE FLIES: Shevchenko shut out Carmouche, winning all five rounds to successfully defend her flyweight title for the second time. In doing so, she became the fifth female champion to ever defend her belt more than once, joining Ronda Rousey, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Amanda Nunes and Cristiane Justino.

OH MY NOSE!: In taking a split decision over Mike Perry, Vicente Luque earned only the second win on the scorecards in his career. He had previously finished his opponent in 15 of his 16 wins, including all nine of his earlier victories inside the Octagon.

FOR THE MASSES: The only fighter from Uruguay on the card or in the promotion for that matter saw his hand raised, as Luiz Eduardo Garagorri took home a unanimous decision over Humberto Bandenay to earn his 13th win in his 13th fight.

TIME ENOUGH AT LAST: Needing almost two full rounds to dispatch Ilir Latifi, Volkan Oezdemir recorded his 13th stoppage in 16 wins. All 12 of his previous finishes came in the opening round.

‘THE BLACK BELT HUNTER’ HAS ARRIVED: In making a successful UFC debut, Vieira remained unbeaten at 6-0 when he tapped out Oskar Piechota. All six of “The Black Belt Hunter’s” wins have come by stoppage.

WHAT IS THIS FEELING?: After a 20-fight career spanning over six years, Alexey Kunchenko suffered his first defeat as a professional when he dropped a decision to Gilbert Burns. This snapped one of the longest active career winning streaks without suffering a loss, as only Yaroslav Amosov (21-0) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (27-0) have longer streaks in major competition.

HEAVYWEIGHTS … AM I RIGHT?: A year and one week into his pro MMA career, Gane picked up his first UFC win by submitting Raphael Pessoa with a first-round arm-triangle choke. “Bon Gamin” is now 4-0 with four finishes within two rounds.

TORNADO REBUFFED: Marina Rodriguez pushed her undefeated record to 12-0-1 when she beat Tecia Torres on the scorecards.

THE GOAT STRIKES BACK: When Rogerio Bontorin split open Raulian Paiva’s eyebrow open with a knee, it resulted in the second doctor stoppage loss in UFC flyweight history. The first came when John Dodson finished John Moraga after the second round at UFC Fight Night 42 in 2014.

OH! VERONICA: Needing only 69 seconds to submit Polyana Viana, Veronica Macedo earned the fastest finish at women’s flyweight in the UFC. It was also the third-fastest submission victory in UFC women’s divisional history, with only Rousey’s 14-second armbar of Cat Zingano at UFC 184 and Emily Whitmire’s 61-second rear-naked choke of Aleksandra Albu at UFC on ESPN 1 coming sooner.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 156, Pessoa had never been defeated (nine fights), Viana had never been finished (13 fights) and Paiva had never lost consecutive bouts (20 fights).

EATING SEEDS AS A PASTIME ACTIVITY: Making his first walk to the cage with “Toxicity” by System of a Down playing behind him, Garagorri emerged victorious in front of home fans. He is the first fighter to use a System of a Down song since Krzysztof Soszynski used “Radio/Video” four recorded times from 2009 to 2010.

THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT: Viana decided to select “Baby Shark” by PinkFong for her walkout music, and she lost in short order. Surprisingly, she is not the first UFC fighter to ever pick this song, as Bryan Barberena chose it before facing Luque at UFC on ESPN 1 in February. Both fighters to use “Baby Shark” lost by stoppage.

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.