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WALSH: UFC 168 By The Numbers – Key Stats From "Weidman–Silva II" Event's Fights and Fighters
Jan 4, 2014 - 5:55:16 PM WALSH: UFC 168 By The Numbers – Key Stats From "Weidman–Silva II" Event's Fights and Fighters

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By: Christian Walsh, MMATorch Contributor

Last Saturday's UFC 168 event featured two championship bouts and showed fans some excellent striking and grappling exchanges, a great many finishes, and a shocking new (and nasty) addition to the list of dangers of the Octagon. Here are some numerical bits of information coming out of that, the 257th UFC event.

15,650: People who attended the event in Las Vegas, bringing in a total gate of $6.2 million.

$300,000: In bonus money divvied out to three fighters, each taking home $75k, except Ronda Rousey, who picked up two bonuses.

8: Fights out of eleven that ended in submission or (T)KO, a wonderful finishing rate of 73%. The judges' showing up was entirely unnecessary for the Pay-Per-View portion of the card.


Dustin Poirier vs Diego Brandao

153: Pounds at which Brandao weighed in the night preceding the fight on his first attempt, seven pounds over the allowed featherweight limit of 146 lbs. This was a tremendous difference, as the Brazilian was closer to the lightweight limit than he was to the featherweight limit. Poirier, though, proved that seven pounds made no difference in the Octagon by taking him out in the first round with his first (T)KO in three years, with only six seconds left in the round.


Jim Miller vs Fabricio Camoes

13: Submission wins Miller now has on his record. Submitting Camoes – a third degree jiu-jitsu black belt under Royler Gracie – was no small feat. Miller himself is a BJJ black belt under Jamie Cruz, a student of Renzo Gracie.

16: Fights Miller has had in the Octagon since joining the organization in 2008. While amassing a seven-fight streak over a couple years, Miller gathered a considerable amount of support for a title shot, and even after breaking that streak in a meeting with future champ Benson Henderson in 2011, he was granted (and subsequently lost) a top-contender's match with Nate Diaz. Despite his bumps with Henderson, Diaz, and most recently Pat Healy, Miller has 12 wins (a comparatively huge number) and three losses in the UFC, with one no contest, and if he can manage to win some fights in 2014 it wouldn't be too difficult to make a case for giving Miller the title shot that's eluded him for so long.


Travis Browne vs Josh Barnett

60: Seconds Barnett lasted against Browne. Those elbows brought not only terror into the hearts of all double-leg practitioners, but Barnett's second knockout loss – his first since 2001.

12: First round finishes Browne has on his record.

3: Straight fights Browne has won, all with Knockout of the Night awards. The fact that these finishes, which were all in the first round, have come against the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and now Barnett, only makes that number even more remarkable. His loss to Bigfoot Silva in 2012 is the only loss in his seventeen-bout career.


Ronda Rousey vs Miesha Tate

134: Strikes Rousey landed opposed to Tate's 28. While there were times on the feet it appeared Tate was holding her own, that difference of 106 strikes shows just how dominant Rousey was in all aspects of the bout.

3: Fights of her last five that Miesha Tate has lost.

6: Takedowns from the Olympic Bronze Medalist. There is a very select group of fighters (so select I can't even call any to mind) that can utilize judo in MMA the way Rousey can. Her throws are second to none, spectacular, and to the untrained eye they come out of nowhere. Not only are they flashy, but they're effective, as they get her onto the ground, which is indisputably and exclusively her territory.

8: Fights Rousey has fought and won, all by armbar. What's amazing is that her opponents know exactly what she plans to do, and they surely train armbar defense every day, and yet they're unable to escape the submission. Tate defended and held out the longest, lasting two rounds and a portion of a third where all others succumbed before the first horn blast.

It's quite clear that when Rousey loses – if she loses – it will be to a striker that doesn't allow the Champ to play her game. While Tate succeeded more than others, outlasting Rousey until the round's end isn't the best way to fight, and battling her on the ground isn't an option for just about anyone. Rousey's reign will continue until she meets someone who can keep their distance and dominate the standup. As things look now, some think that won't happen until Cris Cyborg makes it into the UFC. Cyborg is larger than Rousey, has ten (of her twelve) wins by (T)KO, and has not lost since her pro debut in 2005.

15,649: Fans in attendance booing the champion (don't quote me on that, I just subtracted one from the total attendance, assuming her mom didn't boo her) when, just eleven months earlier, a packed Honda Center was erupting with adoration of Rousey. I've never heard a louder event, even when Cain Velasquez beat up Brock Lesnar in Los Angeles; the floor the day of Rousey's debut was vibrating, before, after, and during her fight with Liz Carmouche. Suddenly the UFC had a new golden goose, another superstar champion, a force to bring women's MMA to the level of men's in the UFC. So it was only logical to put such a figure on television to draw attention to the new prospects of the women's division. Unfortunately, most MMA fans today couldn't immediately name two of those contestants from that Ultimate Fighter season, but a large majority of them could certainly list two dozen reasons why they now hate Ronda Rousey. To make matters worse for the UFC and Rousey (oh, and MetroPCS with all those commercials), Miesha Tate became the new fan-favorite and someone to root for against the champ.

No matter what Rousey may say, the booing seemed to bother her after the fight, and being disliked is an extremely negative aspect of an otherwise flawless career. In MMA, likeability is a one-way street, and now that Rousey has lost that, it'll be near-impossible to gain back even a fraction of the popularity she had before coaching TUF, especially if she doesn't try, as she exhibited by ignoring Miesha's olive branch post-fight. Meanwhile, especially because of her performance Saturday night, Miesha Tate's popularity soared, and anyone who challenges Rousey (starting with Sara McMann) is sure to be the fans' favorite from here on out.


Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva

1: Ezekiel choke attempt, which I personally have never seen attempted in an MMA fight (in an organization where gis are disallowed in). Traditionally the Ezekiel is applied by grabbing one's own sleeve, and without a gi it's tremendously more difficult. It was great to see Weidman attempt such a submission, and it's a testament to the champion's skill, creativity, and well-rounded ability.

34: Total strikes Weidman landed on Silva, a number that is close to Silva's 32. However, Weidman landed 20 "significant strikes" opposed to Silva's 8. Both the original fight and the rematch will go down in history as two of the strangest freak endings in the sport, but unlike in their first meeting, Chris Weidman was undoubtedly winning up to the end. Weidman not only controlled Silva on the ground for the majority of the first round, but before that he briefly turned Silva's lights off in a clinch exchange. Because of his performance in that first round, his win against Silva cannot be considered another fluke, and his status as Champion is further cemented as legitimate.

11: Wins on Weidman's undefeated record. In addition to being unbeaten, he's likeable, impressive, entertaining, and now has two wins over "The Greatest of All Time." If he can perform as he did against Silva in his upcoming match with Vitor Belfort (which I simply cannot wait for), he's got a chance to join the ranks of the UFC's biggest stars.

$600,000: Silva got paid to lose, not including whatever he's getting for the pay-per-view and advertising – so cheer up Andy, it could be worse.

16: Consecutive wins Anderson Silva had in the UFC before he met Chris Weidman in July, a UFC record. To see him injured as he was – breaking both bones in his shin (a very informative video of the UFC's orthopedic surgeon explaining the details of his injury and surgery is on UFC.com) – was, for many fight fans, heartbreaking. He's been labeled by most the greatest, and to think that his spectacular career could have ended with him screaming on the Octagon canvas was disappointing to say the least. However, the injury could've been much worse, and there is a chance that Silva will return to the Octagon after it has healed. Even if it's just for one more fight, most everyone would like to see the G.O.A.T. go out on his own terms.