Fight Facts: UFC on ESPN 61 ‘Tybura vs. Spivac 2’

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.

* * *

TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 7,799
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 701

The Ultimate Fighting Championship staged fights on Saturday, with limited divisional relevance and not a ton of excitement on paper. Relative to those lowered expectations, the fight card lived up to them, even if the main event ended 23 minutes sooner than most expected. UFC on ESPN 61 featured a svelte Moldovan swooping in at just the right moment, dueling bantamweights who make judges work for their paychecks and speedy kickboxer from Morocco making an outstanding second impression.

Thank You for Saving Our Night: Finishing the main event in under two minutes, Serghei Spivac landed an armbar on Marcin Tybura. “The Polar Bear” lifted his high stoppage rate to 88%, with finishes in each of his last four victories.

Straight Armbar Is Still an Armbar: The submission for Spivac was his first armbar since tapping Dimitriy Mikutsa with one in 2015. Regarding all heavyweights in the Octagon, his is the first since Tom Aspinall subbed Alexander Volkov in 2022.

Mir-Like: Spivac landed the 14th armbar in a main event in the promotion's history. He, Aspinall and Fabricio Werdum are the only three to do so in the heavyweight division, while Demetrious Johnson is responsible for three alone.

Talk Is Chepe: Jose Mariscal missed weight by 3.5 pounds and outhustled Damon Jackson en route to a decision. “Chepe” handed Jackson his second pro loss on the scorecards, with his first just over a year earlier against Billy Quarantillo.

That Bizarre 30-27 Card: Needing all three rounds to outwork Nikolay Veretennikov, Danny Barlow came in slightly heavy and picked up the nod on two of three scorecards. Still undefeated at 9-0, Barlow either wins by first-round stoppage or at least reaches Round 3.

Fight Angry: After three one-sided rounds, Yana Santos won a decision over an overweight Chelsea Chandler. She has still yet to earn a finish as a UFC fighter, with her last stoppage coming over Yanan Wu in 2016.

Traversed the Road to the UFC: A whole 82% of the wins for Toshiomi Kazama have come via stoppage following his triangle choke of Charalampos Grigoriou. He is one of 10 men to weigh 135 pounds in the UFC and hit this move, and the second since 2020 (Davey Grant, 2023).

Judges Getting Their Time In: Karol Rosa has alternated wins and losses in her last seven appearances following her bloody beating of Pannie Kianzad. The Brazilian has left things in the hands of the judges in 10 straight fights, which totals her whole UFC tenure plus one more bout.

Twenty-Five Percent of Women’s UFC Bouts Have Ended by Stoppage in 2024: While Rosa has heard the final bell in 10 matches in a row, 10 of 11 for Kianzad have done the same. Her lone finish in that stretch was a rear-naked choke loss to Macy Chiasson in March.

Chugging All the Way: Jhonata Diniz fought beyond the 7:12 mark for the first time in his career by claiming a decision over Karl Williams. The unbeaten 33-year-old had previously earned his first seven wins by knockout.

Zalal Is a Monster in the Gym: To lift his stoppage rate to 80%, Youssef Zalal throttled Jarno Errens in the first round to take home an extra $50,000. His last two UFC wins ended via submission, a far cry from his first stint in the Octagon, where he earned three consecutive decisions.

Little Ronda: Young in her career at 24, Stephanie Luciano settled things with Talita Alencar by winning a clear-cut decision. The woman known as “Rondinha” has reached the second round in every pro fight, win, lose or draw.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ESPN 61, Tybura (33 fights) and Grigoriou (12 fights) had never been submitted, Quang Le (eight fights) and Alencar (six fights) had never been defeated and Williams had never lost on the scorecards (11 fights).

Young Man River: For his last eight fights, Spivac has walked out to some version of “Shiroka Reka”—translated as “Wide River.” During this stretch, the Moldovan has picked performances by Nadezhda Kadysheva or the Golden Ring Ensemble, winning six of those eight matchups.

Big in Brazil: Bucking her standard theme song from Parana Vale Tudo, Rosa went with “The Catalyst” by Linkin Park as her entrance music on Saturday. Thrashing Kianzad, Rosa is the first fighter from Brazil to select the popular band since Demian Maia’s last walk to the cage in 2021.