This past Saturday, the UFC returned to Fox with an event headlined by a pair of budding women's strawweight stars. In the end, Michelle Waterson was able to finish Paige VanZant in the first round and move closer to a shot at champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. 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.
Michelle Waterson finished Paige VanZant with a quick submission
Despite having the moniker "The Karate Hottie," Waterson is actually a well-rounded fighter. In her career, she has won nine of her 14 victories with submissions. In her UFC/Strikeforce career, she has outlanded all of her opponents and scored at least one takedown in each fight. Against VanZant, she picked up her quickest finish since defeating Diana Rael back in 2012.
Mickey Gall exploited the obvious hole in Sage Northcutt's game
The weakest aspect of Northcutt's game has always been his submission defense. That was on display yet again on Saturday. In five UFC fights, Northcutt has allowed his opponents to score nine submission attempts, and both of his losses have come via tapout. Gall, on the other hand, has relied on his submission game. He has won all three of his UFC fights via submission and earned six attempts. Northcutt provided more of a test than CM Punk or Mike Jackson on the feet, and landed some good shots. Gall will need to improve his striking defense in order to avoid shots from fighters who are not so easy to take down.
Urijah Faber walks away with a win over Brad Pickett
Faber was unable to end his career with a finish, but from a statistical perspective, this was the one-sided fight everyone expected. Faber outlanded Pickett 70 to 18 in terms of significant strikes.
His StrikeScore, a measure of striking efficiency, was 493 compared to -25 for Pickett. "The California Kid" finishes his career with the second most bantamweight wins in UFC/WEC history with 11, behind only his chief rival Dominick Cruz.
Alan Jouban takes Mike Perry out of his game
Going into this fight, Perry had landed 6.61 significant strikes per minute. Against Jouban, that rate fell all the way to 2.47. Jouban was able to control distance and force Perry to miss the majority of his significant strike attempts. On the offensive end, Jouban was his regular self, as he landed over 50 percent and 4.60 significant strikes per minute. He has now won three fights in a row for the first time in his UFC career.
