This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
UFC Copenhagen did not really have the name value of the last few events. However, multiple fights on the main card came through in the excitement department. In the main event, Jared Cannonier put a stop the momentum of Jack Hermansson. 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 UFCStats.com.
Jared Cannonier's power told the tale against Jack Hermansson
Early in this fight, it looked like Hermansson's striking and wrestling volume was going to give Cannonier trouble. However, after the fight settled down, Cannonier's power turned out to be the determining factor. Early in the second round, Cannonier landed 18 significant strikes, a knockdown and the finish. Since moving down to middleweight, he has scored knockdowns in all three of his fights, and he is averaging 2.83 knockdowns per 15 minutes of fight time.
Cannonier just missed out on a 100-point performance on DraftKings. He earned players 97 points, which was the fifth-highest score of the night.
Mark Madsen makes strong debut against Danilo Belluardo
Madsen earned a co-main event spot despite the fact that he was making his UFC debut. The former Olympic medalist wrestler scored an early takedown and went to work with ground-and-pound. He landed 21 of his 22 significant strikes and finished the fight in a little over a minute. In the process, he absorbed zero strikes. He had a pretty spectacular debut, but it will be interesting to see how he looks against tougher competition.
Madsen earned the third-highest score of the night on DraftKings. He put up 109 points via his 22 landed significant strikes, takedown, pass and 90-point first round finish bonus.
Gilbert Burns edges Gunnar Nelson in battle of former grapplers
Perhaps it was fitting that two former standout grapplers were matched on the same weekend as the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships. However, Burns seems to have done the better job mixing the martial arts so far in the Octagon, and that led him to victory here. Burns outlanded Nelson 30 to 20 on significant strikes and scored the only takedown in the fight. Nelson clearly has skills standing and on the mat, but he is now averaging only 1.71 significant strikes per minute in the UFC, which is simply not enough striking volume to be successful.
Despite the victory, Burns finished with the lowest DraftKings score among winning fighters on the card. He earned only 53 points for the 15-minute fight.
Ion Cutelaba turns the table on Khalil Rountree
It looked like Rountree was going to have the edge with power striking early in this fight. However, Cutelaba continued to work for takedowns and landed four of his five attempts. In the end, he landed the harder strikes and finished Rountree. Cutelaba landed 13 of his 15 significant strikes on the floor and finished the fight.
Cutelaba's quick victory allowed him to register the second-highest score of the night. He finished with 120.5 points, which was only eclipsed by Jack Shore, who earned 121 points and 11 passes in the very first fight of the evening.
Ovince Saint Preux sticks with his signature submission to defeat Michal Oleksiejczuk
Saint Preux is going to have to get his striking on track one of these days. He has failed to outland an opponent in terms of significant strikes in 10 of his last 11 fights. The only fighter he has outlanded was Marcos Rogerio de Lima in 2017. However, he has been able to pick up five wins during that stretch. He was really struggling in this fight until he scored a takedown in the second round, positioned himself for the Von Flue choke and forced the submission. There have been six Von flue choke submissions in the UFC, and four have come from Saint Preux.
During the fight, Saint Preux only managed to land 14 significant strikes, so he only ended up with 88 points on DraftKings. There were not many high scores on the card, so his score was the seventh-highest of the night.
Nicolas Dalby edges Alex Oliveira thanks to questionable referee decision
This was a close fight throughout. Dalby took the final edge on significant strikes 31 to 18, but the final round was really the story. With the fight seemingly on the line, the referee stood up Oliveira from half guard. At the time, it looked like Dalby might end up stuck on the bottom. However, thanks to the standup, he ended up outlanding Oliveira 13 to zero on significant strikes in the round and walked away the winner.
Dalby finished with 67.5 points on DraftKings, which is to be expected considering he was never really able to get his striking on track on this night.
