A historical approximation of Fedor’s divisional dominance rating since mid-2003.
The Importance of a proposed GSP/Silva match-up
Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva would most certainly pair up the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, barring another big win by Cain Velasquez, or a surprise by Jake Shields.
Since our site only started about 3 years ago, I created a procedure which acts as a good approximation of our Top 10 division dominance list, back to the beginning of MMA history.
Only once before would our #1 have faced our #2, and that match ended by no contest (Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira II). Let’s not hope for a repeat! For the record, Wanderlei Silva inched ahead of these two, and took #1 on the list prior to their 3rd matchup, only to be beaten shortly after by Mark Hunt.
Furthermore, its also important (and amazing) to mention that Georges St. Pierre has never fought above the Welterweight limit, not even pre-UFC, which makes the proposed battle even more tremendous.
Stat of the Day: Career Brazilians’ success once in Zuffa
Over the last several years, with seemingly increasing frequency, Zuffa has made an increased effort to invite Brazilian prospects straight from their homeland (or elsewhere) into the UFC (or previously, the WEC).
Our counts show 31 Brazilians who had fought previously, but never in the USA, then had their first match with either the UFC or WEC, since late 2004.
Prior to Zuffa: 361-47-4 (.876 Win %)
First Match in Zuffa: 15-16 (.484 Win %)
Future Matches in Zuffa: 54-36 (.600 Win %)
These statistics suggest that the Brazilians were “thrown to the wolves” and/or got a big shock when facing top-notch talent. However, either by more friendly matchmaking, or simply by adjustment, they did fairly well afterwards.
Pride & WEC bout statistics
We’ve recently published some statistics for UFC fight outcomes through the history of the organization. Here are similar stats for two MMA promotions that were ‘ultimately’ merged with the UFC.
Pride, 1997-2007:
| Year | T/KO | Sub | Dec | U Dec | S Dec | Draw | NC | DQ | Finish % |
| 1997 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 66.7% |
| 1998 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 85% |
| 1999 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 55.6% |
| 2000 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 64.2% |
| 2001 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 73.5% |
| 2002 | 27 | 25 | 30 | 20 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 63.4% |
| 2003 | 20 | 14 | 17 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 66.7% |
| 2004 | 33 | 29 | 28 | 17 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 69.2% |
| 2005 | 39 | 24 | 35 | 27 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64.3% |
| 2006 | 34 | 34 | 33 | 27 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67.3% |
| 2007 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 94.1% |
WEC, 2001 – 2010:
| Year | T/KO | Sub | Dec | U Dec | M Dec | S Dec | Draw | NC | DQ | Finish % |
| 2001 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 95% |
| 2002 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 82.8% |
| 2003 | 18 | 17 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 87.5% |
| 2004 | 25 | 17 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 81.1% |
| 2005 | 24 | 29 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 90.5% |
| 2006 | 30 | 28 | 14 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 81.1% |
| 2007 | 21 | 27 | 16 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 75.4% |
| 2008 | 27 | 16 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 72.1% |
| 2009 | 20 | 18 | 43 | 30 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 47.6% |
| 2010 | 18 | 29 | 39 | 27 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 54.7% |
UFC bout statistics: 1993-2010
From our extensive MMA bout database, some interesting statistics on UFC fight outcomes, from 1993 to 2010:
| Year | T/KO | Sub | Dec | U Dec | M Dec | S Dec | Draw | NC | DQ | Finish % |
| 1993 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| 1994 | 9 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| 1995 | 11 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 87.5% |
| 1996 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 88.4% |
| 1997 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 84.6% |
| 1998 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72.0% |
| 1999 | 24 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 75.0% |
| 2000 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 60.5% |
| 2001 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 70.0% |
| 2002 | 27 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 71.7% |
| 2003 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 65.9% |
| 2004 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74.4% |
| 2005 | 39 | 25 | 27 | 23 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 70.7% |
| 2006 | 55 | 51 | 52 | 42 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67.1% |
| 2007 | 52 | 55 | 61 | 52 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 63.7% |
| 2008 | 83 | 54 | 64 | 49 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68.2% |
| 2009 | 71 | 60 | 91 | 65 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 57.2% |
| 2010 | 76 | 65 | 130 | 101 | 5 | 24 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 51.8% |
Fighter Stats: Not Tougha at Zuffa
Today, I decided to take a look at fighters who have the largest difference between their Zuffa and non-Zuffa win percentage. The following qualifiers were used:
- WEC, UFC, and PRIDE are considered as “Zuffa”.
- Fighters must have had at least three fights in those three organizations.
- Fighters must have had at least three fights outside of those three organizations.
- No contests and non-pro bouts were not included in any of the counts.
11 fighters have had a winning percentage of at least 80% outside of Zuffa, but have went winless in one of the above organizations.
Fighter NonZuffaWLD ZuffaWLD PctDiff
-------------------- ----------- -------- -------Rodney Wallace 10-0-0 0-3-0 -100.0%Jesse Forbes 13-1-0 0-4-0 -92.9%Dan Lauzon 13-1-0 0-3-0 -92.9%Peter Sobotta 8-1-0 0-3-0 -88.9%Keita Nakamura 20-1-2 0-3-0 -87.0%Jameel Massouh 24-4-0 0-3-0 -85.7%Travis Wiuff 62-11-0 0-3-0 -84.9%Phillipe Nover 5-0-1 0-3-0 -83.3%Brodie Farber 13-3-0 0-3-0 -81.3%Steve Steinbeiss 4-1-0 0-3-0 -80.0%.
Rodney Wallace gets the gold star for having the full fledged “180”.
UFC 103 Trivia and Statistics
UFC 103 marks the first time that two Croatian born fighters have ever competed on the same UFC card.
Rich Franklin is fighting his second straight fight at a 195 pound catch weight. Franklin is the only fighter in UFC history to have more than one bout at this weight.
UFC 103 comes only 3 days after UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs. Guillard and is the UFC’s second ever show in Texas. The fight card closest to another fight card in UFC history, UFC 69, came only 2 days after UFC Fight Night: Stevenson vs. Guillard and was the UFC’s first ever show in Texas.
UFC 103 will mark the first time since November 2006 that major MMA and boxing cards have competed with one another. UFC 65 with Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes sold 500,000 PPVs, compared to a Manny Pacquiao vs. Erik Morales fight that sold 350,000 PPVs.
Efrian Escudero fights Cole Miller for his first fight after winning The Ultimate Fighter season 8. Escudero has been on the sidelines for 9 months and 6 days since winning TUF, the second longest interval ever behind Amir Sadollah.
UFC 103 will be Rich Franklin’s third headlining fight this year, more than any other fighter in the UFC.
Of Tyson Griffin’s 15 professional fights, the first 8 were all finished inside the distance and the last 7 have all gone to decision.
Good news for both Griffin and his opponent, Hermes Franca. 5 of Griffin’s past 7 fights have earned Fight of the Night honors.
9 of Cole Miller’s 15 wins have come via choke (triangle, guillotine, or rear naked).
Junior Dos Santos has never had a fight reach the second round.
Victories over UFC Champions, Part II
In the first part of this post, found here, we examined which fighters had defeated the most UFC champions in their careers. Such a list raises more questions than it answers. One of the most natural questions to ask about such a list is “What happens if you account for Pride champions as well?”
The amended list is below. A complete list of Pride champions can be found here.
UFC 102 Trivia
MMA Trivia and Stats for UFC 102:
Demian Maia is the ninth ADCC Champion to fight in the UFC. He’s put those submission skills to work, as he is the only UFC fighter since Royce Gracie to win five fights in a row via submission. He is also the only fighter in UFC history to ever win five consecutive fights via choke.
Nate Marquardt is fighting Demian Maia, a Brazilian BJJ black belt. Marquardt has only lost three fights in the last six years, all to Brazilian BJJ black belts.
Krzysztof Soszynski is coming off the very rare feat (for the present-day UFC) of fighting on two consecutive UFC events (UFC 97 and UFC 98)
Krzysztof Soszynski also remains the only Polish-born fighter ever to fight on a main card for the UFC. Tomasz Drwal has fought for the UFC three times but never on a main card.
Randy Couture enters the fight without a lengthy streak (one loss), which is normal for ‘The Natural’. He hasn’t had a winning streak or losing streak of more than two fights since 2001.
Portland is the first city in the Pacific Northwest to ever host a UFC.
With a win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Randy Couture would move into a tie for first place on FightMatrix’s “Who has beaten the most UFC Champions?” list.
Keith Jardine has not won or lost multiple fights in a row since 2006.
Justin McCully has never lost a decision or been knocked out. All four of his losses have come by submission. His opponent, Mike Russow, has submitted six of his last seven opponents.
Marcus Aurelio has never been finished, despite seven losses. Of his seven losses, four were split decisions. His opponent, Evan Dunham, has won his last seven fights inside the distance.
Victories over UFC Champions, Part I
By virtue of being one of the first MMA organizations in the world and having an unbroken history that extends to their present day dominance, the title of ‘UFC Champion’ is arguably the most prestigious title that any fighter can hold. ‘UFC Champion’ is by no means the only prestigious title an MMA champion may have won, but it is without a doubt the most consistently meaningful title in the history of our sport. And if being a UFC champion is worth so much, what about victories over those champions? Which fighters in MMA history have defeated the most members of this exclusive club?
To be clear, the criteria for ‘UFC Champion’ is as follows. Interim champions count. Early UFC tournament (Pre UFC 20) winners count as champions, and post UFC 20 tournament winners such as UFC Japan 2 and TUF tournament winners are not counted. Superfight winners count as champs. A win over a champion, future, present, past or at any point in their career counts. That’s the criteria used for this list. I’ve included every fighter with three or more victories over different UFC champions. For a list of all UFC Champions, see here.
2009 1st Half Award: The Deepest Shows
A deep show (in our opinion) is one that features matches between fighters that are BOTH ranked at the time of the match. These first-half shows had the most of these matches.
1st Place: UFC 97 [11]
T-2nd Place: Affliction 2, UFC 95, UFC 98, Sengoku Seventh [9]
Rounding out the Top 10
T-6th: UFC Fight Night 17, UFC 94, UFC 96 [8]
T-9th: Sengoku No Ran, UFC 99, WEC 40, Dream 8, UFC UF 9 Finale [7]
Note: The above list was calculated after the fact, using our current ranking limits (Top 150, 100, etc). Although approximate, it should be extremely accurate.
Note #2: List was updated as current ranking limits were not being used.
2009 1st Half Award: The “Most Important” Match
The most important match is calculated by added both fighters’ pre-fight ranks together, then sorting it by the lowest amount first.
1st Place: Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn II
T-2nd Place: Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber II
T-2nd Place: Shinichi Kojima vs. Yuki Shoujo
Rounding out the Top 10
4th: Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans
T-5th: Mike Brown vs. Leonard Garcia
T-5th: Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki
7th: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski
8th: Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin
9th: Jake Shields vs. Robbie Lawler
10th: Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
Note: The above list was calculated after the fact. Although approximate, it should be extremely accurate.
Credit to CrowCrucifix for the idea.. Blame me for the medal colors. Its ashame I couldn’t break out bronze due to the tie.
Records to be broken at UFC 97
At UFC 97, former lightheavyweight champion Chuck Liddell will break a UFC record as soon as he steps into the Octagon for the twenty-second time in his career. Liddell will pull ahead of his long-time rival Tito Ortiz, with whom he currently shares the record at 21 UFC bouts. Matt Hughes will also have 21 UFC bouts to his name when he faces Matt Serra this summer, while Liddell’s other old rival – Randy Couture – will fight in the UFC for the twentieth time. With sixteen victories, Liddell already holds the record for most wins in the UFC.
In the main event, the defending middleweight champion Anderson Silva is also looking to break or tie a couple records. Should he succesfully defend his title against Thales Leites, Silva will become the first fighter in UFC history with nine consecutive wins. He will also tie Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz with five consecutive title defenses, and tie with Ortiz for the second-most wins in UFC title bouts (Matt Hughes and Randy Couture are tied for the first, with nine title victories each!)
Some additional UFC records:
Most Consecutive Wins in the UFC
Strength of Schedule… with a twist.
Leland Roling of MMA-Analyst posted some strength of schedule statistics on BloodyElbow. He went two layers deep, and included the winning percentage of fighters’ opponents, as well as the opponents’ opponents.
Although his efforts were more than noteworthy, after taking a closer look, I felt the combination of the two layers was a bit subjective in nature. Furthermore, the statistics included the entire careers of all fighters involved, which I felt was overkill.
Update: Posted a Top 50 list.
Ten biggest point-based upsets in MMA history (Revisited)
We posted the original last June, and you can find the link at the bottom of this post. Since then, we’ve had more bouts occur, we’ve improved the formulas, and added quite a bit of data,.
The significance of the upsets on this list is measured not by the betting odds, but by the difference in the Fightmatrix.com point standing between the two fighters, normalized by division. The list is ranked on total difference, not proportional difference, so newer results tend to take precedence, as there is a growing gap between the top notch fighters, and the bottom of the barrel.
- Gabriel Gonzaga W Mirko Filipovic (UFC 70, Apr 21 2007)
- Frank Mir W Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (UFC 92, Dec 27 2008)
- Matt Serra W Georges St. Pierre (UFC 69, Apr 7 2007)
- Mark Hunt W Wanderlei Silva (Pride Shockwave 2004, Dec 31 2004)
- Quinton Jackson W Chuck Liddell 2 (UFC 71, May 26 2007)
- Mark Coleman W Mauricio Rua (Pride 31, Feb 26 2006)
- Keith Jardine W Chuck Liddell (UFC 76, Sep 22 2007 )
- Cheick Kongo W Mirko Filipovic (UFC 75, Sep 8 2007)
- Junior dos Santos W Fabricio Werdum (UFC 90, Oct 25 2008)
- Sergey Golyaev W Takanori Gomi (Sengoku 6th, Nov 1 2008)