This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
On paper UFC 214 was stacked, and it mostly came through. In the main event, Jon Jones recaptured the UFC light heavyweight title with a third-round knockout. The rest of the main card also feature some interesting statistical occurrences and milestones. The following is a by-the-numbers recap that highlights the stats and milestones that stood out on the main card, with stats courtesy of FightMetric.com.
Jon Jones does it again to Daniel Cormier
There has never been an MMA fighter that uses reach and range for striking offense better than Jon Jones. Cormier was still able to land strikes in this fight, but it seemed like he had to eat three strikes for each that he landed. Jon Jones ended up landing 95 significant strikes with 76 coming at distance. Cormier managed to land 58 significant strikes with 46 coming at distance. Standing at range and trying to strike with Jones is a tough task for anyone. In his last five fights, Jones has outlanded his opponents at distance 429 to 265. Despite coming from a wrestling background, Cormier has evolved into a solid striker. In the UFC, he has only been outlanded twice, both times by Jones. In their first fight, Jones outlanded him by 34 and in this bout, he edged him by 37.
A unique aspect of Jones' striking game is his diversity of targets. Of his 95 significant strikes, he landed 35 percent of those to the head, 34 percent to the body and 31 percent to the legs. Most fighters in MMA are determined headhunters.
Following the fight, Jones called out former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. If that fight happens, it will be a tough night for Lesnar. If he is unable to land takedowns, Jones will make his life miserable. In his eight-fight UFC career, Lesnar has landed 31 distance strikes. Jones landed 31 distance strikes against Cormier… in the first round.
Jones finished with 102.5 DraftKings points, which was second best on the main card. He earned 47.5 points from his 95 significant strikes, 10 points from the knockdown and 45 points from the third-round win bonus.
Tyron Woodley uses strategic approach to defeat Demian Maia
This welterweight title fight was nearly as noteworthy as it was uninspiring. Maia nearly set the record for takedown futility in a fight. He went 0-for-21 on his takedown attempts, which is the second-worst takedown performance behind Diego Sanchez going 0-for-27 against BJ Penn.
The two combined to land 86 strikes. A lot of people have stated that this was the fewest number of significant strikes landed in a title fight. Unfortunately that is not true. Per FightMetric stats producer Michael Carroll on Twitter, it was the fewest number of combined strikes landed in a five-round welterweight title fight. Woodley and Maia broke the previous record set by Woodley and Thompson in their rematch at UFC 209.
Woodley was obviously being conservative with his striking in this fight, but that is not entirely out of step with his regular approach. In this fight, he landed 57 significant strikes, which comes out to 2.28 significant strikes per minute. That is only 9 percent lower than his output for his combined UFC/Strikeforce career, 2.48. When he does not score quick knockouts, Woodley is going to have long and perhaps boring fights. At this point, it is who he is.
For DraftKings players, Woodley is an interesting quandary. On one hand, he is very inactive. On the other hand, he does have the ability to finish fights. In this fight, he finished with only 68.5 points, which was tied for the lowest score among winners on the card.
Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino finishes Tonya Evinger in the third
As expected "Cyborg" stopped Evinger to become the second UFC featherweight champion. It might have taken a little longer than some thought, but the former Strikeforce champion got it done. She outlanded Evinger 74 to 32 and allowed only 1-of-4 takedowns attempted. Evinger, who took the fight on short notice and moved up a weight class, was clearly tentative. "Cyborg" remained calm and composed and waited for the knockout blow.
This was the fourth-longest fight of Justino's career and the first time a fighter had been past two rounds with her since she faced Marloes Coenen in 2013.
"Cyborg" finished with 92 DraftKings points, which is a respectable score. She came into this fight costing players $9,600, which means player paid around $104 per point.
Robbie Lawler storms back in the third to defeat Donald Cerrone
Lawler went off in the first round. He landed 37 significant strikes in the frame and appeared to hurt Cerrone on multiple occasions. Cerrone took control in the second and outlanded Lawler 29 to 9. However, the former UFC champion must have taken the round off, because he came in the final round and landed another 31 strikes. Cerrone took the final significant strike advantage 82 to 77, but Lawler clearly landed with more power throughout the contest.
Cerrone had some of his best moments on the ground in the first round. However, Lawler did not let the fight hit the ground again. He ended up stopping nine of Cerrone's 10 attempts.
As brilliant as the performance was for Lawler, that did not really come across from a fantasy perspective. His inactive second round lowered his strike count and his overall score. He finished tied with Woodley for the lowest DraftKings score among winners with 68.5.
Volkan Oezdemir does it again against Jimi Manuwa
After upsetting Ovince Saint Preux via decision in his UFC debut, Oezdemir has showed off incredible power. In his next two fights, he scored a pair of knockouts in only 70 seconds, and he did it by landing only 17 significant strikes.
That kind of knockout power obviously makes him very attractive to DraftKings players. For this victory, he earned players 106 points, which was the third highest score of the night behind only Ricardo Lamas (122) and Drew Dober (107.5).
