Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 158

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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: 5,320
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 493

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday returned to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the first time since August 2016 with an intriguing card headlined by an all-action fight that delivered on its promise. UFC Fight Night 158 featured an incredibly rare Peruvian necktie submission, a man swimming in post-fight bonuses and a 32-fight veteran going the distance for the first time in his career.

I’M NOT YOUR BUDDY, GUY: Three bouts on the card featured a fighter from the United States facing an opponent from Canada. The Americans won all three.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWGIRLS GONE?: UFC Fight Night 158 was the first event since UFC on Fox 31 to feature no bouts taking place in women’s divisions. Previously, there was a span of 30 events that had at least one women’s match on every card.

SCROOGE MCGAETHJE: In picking up a “Performance of the Night” bonus for finishing Donald Cerrone, Justin Gaethje earned his seventh post-fight bonus in six fights. No fighter in UFC history has ever won bonuses in each of his first six Octagon appearances.

AN ENDLESS HIGHLIGHT REEL: Upon ending the main event by first-round knockout, Gaethje recorded his 19th stoppage in his 21 career wins, including 18 by knockout.

WHO WANTS SOME?: Gaethje has now knocked out three consecutive opponents in the first round, becoming the second fighter in UFC lightweight history to accomplish the feat. The first was B.J. Penn, who did so in his first three career bouts.

REALLY HAD TO DIG DEEP: Glover Teixeira took Nikita Krylov three full rounds, on his way to capturing a split verdict. Krylov had never gone the distance in 32 fights and had previously only reached the third round once before when he faced Soa Palelei at UFC 164 in 2013. Krylov lost a close split decision to Teixeira.

AFTER FOUR YEARS …: After Jeff Hughes landed an accidental eye poke on Todd Duffee, their matchup was ruled a no-contest. It was the first UFC fight to end with such a result since Eddie Alvarez illegally kneed a downed Dustin Poirier in the head at UFC 211 in 2017.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION: Duffee last fought on July 15, 2015, before taking several years off to recover from multiple injuries and also due to contract disputes with the promotion. During that time, Cerrone competed 14 times, including once for a belt, changed weight classes twice and earned eight post-fight bonuses.

MORE THAN HIS PREVIOUS FIGHTS COMBINED: Tristan Connelly and Michel Pereira earned “Fight of the Night” honors for their battle. Because Pereira missed weight, Connelly earned both halves of the bonus to cash in $100,000 in his promotional debut. This was unlike Petr Yan’s battle with Jin Soo Son, as Son missed weight and the two went on to win FOTN. However, Yan only received half of the allotted money.

THE WISE MONEY: After Pereira missed weight by a pound, his betting line shifted from about -550 to close at -460. When Connelly took the decision win, he earned the fourth-largest betting upset in the UFC in 2019. Had the line stayed close to where it was, it would have been the second- or third-biggest instead.

LATVIAN NECKTIE: Misha Cirkunov pulled off the second Peruvian necktie choke in UFC history when he tapped Jim Crute. The first came by C.B. Dollaway, who performed one on Jesse Taylor at UFC Fight Night 14 in 2008.

PRE-MODERN WEIGHT CLASSES NOTWITHSTANDING: With his submission victory, Cirkunov now has five such wins in the light heavyweight division, tying Teixeira, Jon Jones and Ovince St. Preux for the most inside the Octagon at 205 pounds.

MADE IT BIG TIME: Cirkunov has now finished six opponents under the UFC banner. However, the “Performance of the Night” bonus he earned for his Peruvian necktie was his first.

SAVE SOME ROOM FOR LATER, AUGUSTO: Augusto Sakai demolished Marcin Tybura in 59 seconds, earning the sixth sub-minute knockout in the heavyweight division so far in 2019. This far exceeds any other division, with the next most at light heavyweight at four. Two of those came from Johnny Walker.

ONE MORE FOR FORTIS: In taking a split decision that also split media scorecards right down the middle, Miles Johns won his Octagon debut over Cole Smith. The Fortis MMA prospect remained undefeated at 10-0.

FROM CONTENDER SERIES TO CONTENDER: Hunter Azure also made a successful UFC debut, as he took a close decision over Brad Katona to lift his unbeaten record to 8-0.

SMOLKA SMOKED HIM: After dispatching Ryan MacDonald in the first round, Louis Smolka has now finished his opponent in 14 of his 16 wins. Seven victories have come by knockout, with another seven by submission.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 158, Connelly had never won on the scorecards (19 fights), Crute (10 fights) and Cole Smith (seven fights) had never been defeated and MacDonald had never been stopped (11 fights).

ICE COLD CHILI PEPPERS: Two fighters used songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Hughes with “Higher Ground” and Tybura with “Can’t Stop.” Neither man won.

COMING BACK … IN BLACK: Azure’s win after using “Back in Black” by AC/DC lifted the track’s recorded winning percentage above .300, but it still holds one of the lowest win-loss percentages (.316) of any of the Top 50 most frequently used walkout songs.

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.