UFC Fight Night By the Numbers
The International Fight Week tripleheader was a tough act to follow, but the main components of the UFC Fight Night Sioux Falls card were more than up to the task.
John Lineker solidified himself as a forced to be reckoned with at bantamweight, scoring a first-round knockout of onetime hot prospect Michael McDonald in Wednesday’s headliner at the Denny Sanford Premier Center. That effort was preceded by a wildly entertaining lightweight scrap between Tony Ferguson and Landon Vannata in the co-main event. While Vannata had his moments in round one, Ferguson survived and submitted his short-notice foe with a brabo choke in the second round.
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10: Career knockdowns landed by Lineker in UFC competition, making him the 16th fighter to land at least 10 in the Octagon. The Brazilian is the first fighter 135 pounds or less to achieve that total. “Hands of Stone” floored McDonald twice en route to victory at the 2:43 mark of round one on Wednesday night.
26: Significant strikes landed by Lineker in victory. The
breakdown: 18 to the head, seven to the body and one to the legs.
By comparison, McDonald landed 14 significant strikes.
8: Consecutive triumphs for Ferguson, moving him past Khabib Nurmagomedov for longest active winning streak among UFC lightweights. It is also the fourth-longest active winning streak in the promotion overall.
7: Lightweight finishes for Ferguson since 2011, second most in the division behind only Donald Cerrone (nine).
3: Triumphs via brabo choke for Tony Ferguson in UFC competition, making him the only fighter in promotion history to earn three such submission victories. Ferguson submitted Vannata with the maneuver 2:22 into the second frame.
75: Combined significant strikes landed by Ferguson (41) and Vannata (34) in their wild opening round. Vannata landed the bout’s only knockdown during the slugfest but was unable to finish his opponent before the frame ended.
24: Significant ground strikes landed by Tim Boetsch in the second round of his TKO victory against Josh Samman. That barrage of ground-and-pound brought a halt to the middleweight bout 3:49 into round two. Boetsch landed 38 significant strikes overall in the contest.
599: Days since Alexey Oleinik’s last Octagon appearance. The 39-year-old Russian, who was shelved with knee problems since November 2014, saw an 11-fight winning streak come to an end in a majority decision loss to Daniel Omnielanczuk in a featured heavyweight clash.
4: Consecutive flyweight victories for Louis Smolka following his second-round TKO win over Ben Nguyen. That is the third-longest active winning streak in the division behind Demetrious Johnson (10) and Joseph Benavidez (five).
7: Submissions attempted by Smolka in the bout, the most ever by a flyweight in a single fight and tied for fifth most in UFC history overall. Smolka held the previous flyweight record with five submission attempts at UFC 189; Cole Miller holds the all-time record with 10 attempts at UFC Fight Night 11.
78: Significant strikes by which Smolka outlanded Nguyen, the fourth largest differential in UFC flyweight history. The greatest differential at 125 pounds occurred when Demetrious Johnson outlanded Ali Bagautinov by 97 significant strikes at UFC 174. Smolka outlanded his foe 82 to 4 in significant strikes and 138 to 8 in total strikes.
4: First-round finishes among four UFC triumphs for Sam Alvey, who tapped out Eric Spicely with a guillotine choke 2:43 into the opening round of their middleweight clash.
65: Total strikes by which Scott Holtzman outlanded Cody Pfister in their lightweight duel. “Hot Sauce” ran up a solid advantage in each frame, outlanding his foe 35 to 16 in round one, 39 to 22 in round two and 46 to 17 in round three.
1: Takedown landed in nine attempts for Pfister, who had landed seven of nine takedowns combined in his previous two Octagon appearances.
5: Submissions for Rani Yahya in UFC/WEC competition, tying him with Renan Barao for second-most at bantamweight in the combined history of the two promotions. Urijah Faber is No. 1 with seven submissions. Yahya tapped out Matthew Lopez with an arm-triangle choke 4:19 into the third round of their preliminary scrap.
109: Total strikes landed by Yahya, who also scored three takedowns and passed guard five times in the fight. By comparison, Lopez landed 26 strikes.
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