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Alex Pereira didn’t require any magic to vanquish
Jiri Prochazka . A perfectly-placed head kick did the job just fine.
Pereira retained his light heavyweight crown in typically spectacular fashion in the
UFC 303 headliner, vanquishing Prochazka via technical knockout 13 seconds into the second round of their championship rematch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. “Poatan” dropped his adversary at the conclusion of Round 1 and picked up right where he left off in the second stanza, flooring Prochazka with a head kick and sealing his second title defense with follow-up punches on the canvas. By filling in for an injured
Conor McGregor , Pereira continued to make his case to be the promotion’s biggest active star. After his latest triumph, the Brazilian reiterated his interest in a move to heavyweight, where he could make a bid to become a three-division champion.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 303, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
7: Fighters in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history to earn a finish using four or more different striking techniques. By using a head kick to vanquish Prochazka, Pereira joined an exclusive group that also includes
Georges St. Pierre ,
Jeremy Stephens ,
Anthony Smith ,
Dan Hooker ,
Alistair Overeem and
Johnny Walker . In addition to the head kick, “Poatan” has finished fights using punches, elbows and a flying knee.
4: Title fight wins since November 2022 for Pereira, the most of anyone in the UFC during that timeframe.
2: Successful light heavyweight title defenses for Pereira, making him the first 205-pound champion since
Jon Jones to make at least that many defenses.
31: Significant strikes by which Pereira outlanded Prochazka in the abbreviated affair. Pereira landed 38 of his 50 attempts — a 76% success rate. Prochazka landed seven of 25 significant strikes — a 28% clip.
6: Career knockdowns for Pereira. Saturday marked the first time during his UFC tenure that he landed two in a single fight.
5: Different fights/weight classes booked as the UFC 303 co-main event. What initially started as a light heavyweight clash between
Khalil Rountree and
Jamahal Hill evolved into a 165-pound catchweight affair pitting
Dan Ige against
Diego Lopes on Saturday night. In between there were the following fights: Hill vs.
Carlos Ulberg ,
Brian Ortega vs.
Diego Lopes at featherweight and Ortega vs. Lopes at lightweight. Ige stepped in on fight night after Ortega was forced out of the event due to illness.
100: Significant strikes landed by
Roman Dolidze in his short-notice light heavyweight debut, a unanimous decision triumph over
Anthony Smith . By comparison, Smith landed 51 significant strikes. Dolidze did his best work in Round 2, outlanding his foe by a 48-to-11 count.
8: Consecutive victories for
Ian Garry , the longest active winning streak in the UFC’s welterweight division. That figure is also tied with
Leon Edwards for the third-longest winning streak in division history behind
Kamaru Usman (15) and
Georges St. Pierre (12).
7:29: Total control time for Garry, which was a key to his victory against the striking-minded Page. The Irishman landed two of five takedown attempts and attempted two submissions in victory.
13: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 15 tracked by
MMADecisions.com , that scored the featherweight bout between
Cub Swanson and
Andre Fili in favor of Swanson. Judges Michael Bell and Ron McCarthy saw things differently, submitting 29-28 tallies for Fili to give the Team Alpha Male product a split-decision triumph.
90: Total strikes landed by Swanson. By comparison, Fili landed 70. However, Fili did have a 67-to-62 advantage in significant strikes landed. Fili also had the fight’s only two takedowns and logged 3:50 of control time. Swanson didn’t land a takedown and had just 29 seconds of control time.
3: Knockdowns landed in two UFC appearances for
Jean Silva . The Fighting Nerds export floored
Charles Jourdain twice en route to a second-round stoppage at UFC 303.
0:19: Time of
Payton Talbott ’s first-round knockout victory against
Yanis Ghemmouri . That’s the second-fastest finish in UFC bantamweight history behind
Erik Perez ’s 17-second stoppage of
Ken Stone at UFC 150 in August 2012.
122: Total strikes landed by
Gillian Robertson in a dominant three-round verdict over
Michelle Waterson-Gomez at strawweight. By comparison, Waterson-Gomez landed 41 total strikes.
67: Significant ground strikes, — out of 77 total — for Robertson, who also racked up 12:34 total control time. Waterson-Gomez landed 21 significant strikes — nine on the ground — and had just 19 seconds of control time.
42: UFC bouts for
Andrei Arlovski , second most in promotion history behind
Jim Miller (44). “The Pit Bull” wound up on the wrong side of a split decision on Saturday, falling to
Martin Buday in a preliminary heavyweight contest.
6:49:58: Total fight time for Arlovski. By spending 15 minutes in the Octagon against Buday, the Belarusian moved past
Demian Maia (6:49:40) and into sixth place on the UFC’s all-time list.
54: Significant strikes by which
Vinicius Oliveira outlanded
Ricky Simon in a unanimous decision triumph at bantamweight. “Lok Dog” also stuffed nine of his opponent’s 11 takedown attempts.
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