This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
In the main event of UFC Fight Night 133, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos got back on track with a decision victory over Blagov Ivanov. On the undercard, Raoni Barcelos put up the highest DraftKings score of the night, 114, for his third-round knockout over Kurt Holobaugh. 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.
Junior dos Santos outpoints Blagoy Ivanov on the way to a one-sided win
The former heavyweight champion may not be entirely his former self, but he can still box up an accomplished heavyweight. He outlanded Ivanov 110 to 51 on significant strikes over the course of his 25-minute fight. He forced Ivanov to miss 78 percent of significant strike attempts, while landing 44 percent of his. Dos Santos made it a point to work the body of his opponent as 37 percent of significant strikes landed to that target.
Unfortunately for players who had Dos Santos on their teams, DraftKings does not really reward stylistic mastery. He earned players 85 points based on his significant strikes and the 30-point decision bonus. Dos Santos has not earned a stoppage finish since 2013, so his days as a consistent DFS threat might be coming to an end.
Sage Northcutt stages second-round comeback against Zak Ottow
In the first round, it did not look like Northcutt was going to have a successful return to welterweight. However, he put the fight away with a dominant performance in the second round. In that frame, Northcutt outlanded Ottow 14 to two on significant strikes, scored a knockdown and finished the fight. Despite the victory, Northcutt does not seem to be making strides on the ground. In the first round, he allowed a submission attempt and six passes. He will need to sure that up especially against larger opposition at welterweight.
There were only five finishes on the card, and Northcutt had one. Thanks mostly to the second-round finish bonus, he finished with 100 points. This was Northcutt's first stoppage due to strikes since his UFC debut in 2015. If he is able to continue to finish with his strikes, he may become a more viable scoring option. However, the potential for him to get stuck on the ground remains high.
Rick Glenn takes controversial decision over Dennis Bermudez
There was a lot of consternation throughout the MMA sphere regarding this decision. While stats do not always tell the whole story in combat sports, the number does paint this as a close fight. In terms of significant strikes, Glenn slightly outlanded Bermudez 48 to 42. However, Bermudez was persistent with his wrestling and landed six of his 14 takedown attempts. In the process, he broke the record for most takedowns landed by a featherweight in UFC/WEC history. While Bermudez may have done enough to take the decision in theory, he really hurt himself by not landing significant strikes on the ground. Despite landing six takedowns, he could only muster eight significant strikes on ground.
Glenn finished with the lowest score among winners on Saturday with 54 points. In fact, despite losing, Bermudez matched with score with 54 points. This seems to happen regularly when there is widespread dissension on a decision.
Niko Price finishes Randy Brown from the bottom
There is not really much to say about this fight from a stats perspective. Both fighters landed, 12 significant strikes for Price and 13 for Brown, but Price landed with much more power and finished the fight. Price has rarely showed this power his previous UFC fights, but he did need only 10 significant strikes to finish normally durable Alan Jouban in 2017.
For the second-round finish, Price earned players 86 DraftKings points, which was the seventh highest score of the night.
Chad Mendes returns with quick victory over Myles Jury
Mendes has always been a powerful puncher who has great control on the ground. Even after a two-year layoff, that remains true. He landed only two standing strikes in the fight and one dropped Jury. From there, he pounded out the former prospect with 15 significant strikes on the floor, which finished the fight. Even some of the best fighters in the sport can suffer from ring rust, but that was not the case here for Mendes.
Mendes had the only first-round finish of the night and finished with the second-highest score. He earned players 108.5 points based on the finish, 17 significant strikes and a knockdown.
Cat Zingano grinds out Marion Reneau
Zingano appeared to be a cut above throughout this fight. She landed 33 significant strikes with 13 coming on the ground. She landed six of her 10 takedown attempts. Reneau never landed more than nine significant strikes in any of the three rounds and only 10 significant head strikes in 15 minutes.
Zingano's inability to land more significant strikes on the floor hurt her DraftKings score. She landed 94 total strikes but only 33 were significant, thus she finished with only 82.5 points. The score was the 10th highest of the night.
