By the Numbers: UFC 301

Alexandre Pantoja needed every bit of five rounds to get past Steve Erceg.

Ultimately, the reigning flyweight champion’s ability to mix up his attacks proved to be the difference, as he took a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Erceg in the UFC 301 headliner at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night. It’s the second successful flyweight title defense for “The Cannibal,” who was able to win in front of his home fans against a game opponent. Erceg, who was fighting for a championship less than a year into his Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure, likely raised his stock in defeat — and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him fighting for gold again in the near future.

Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 301, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.

12: Flyweight victories in UFC competition for Pantoja. That’s third most in the history of the division behind only Demetrious Johnson (13) and Joseph Benavidez (13).

9: Takedowns landed by Pantoja in 19 attempts, a UFC career high for the flyweight champion. After landing 11 takedowns in his first 12 UFC appearances, “The Cannibal” has landed 23 takedowns in his last three fights. Erceg, meanwhile, landed one of six takedown attempts.

8:15: Total control time for Pantoja, which included a key 2:46 in the decisive fifth frame. Erceg logged just 32 seconds of control time in defeat.

125: Significant strikes landed by Pantoja. By comparison, Erceg landed 111. Pantoja outlanded his opponent 30 to 17 in Round 1, 34 to 22 in Round 3 and 15 to 13 in Round 5. Erceg, meanwhile, outlanded Pantoja 28 to 23 in Round 2 and 31 to 23 in Round 4. Pantoja also held a 143-to-129 edge in total strikes landed.

87: Significant head strikes for Erceg. Pantoja landed 75 significant strikes to the head.

33: Significant body strikes for Pantoja. Erceg, meanwhile, landed 16 significant strikes to the body. Pantoja also held significant strike advantages in to the legs (17-8), in the clinch (14-3) and on the ground (15 to 1).

77: Significant strikes landed by UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo in a unanimous decision triumph against Jonathan Martinez in the bantamweight co-main event. By comparison, Martinez landed 52. Aldo outlanded his foe 17 to 15 in Round 1, 30 to 14 in Round 2 and 30 to 23 in Round 3. It was Aldo’s first fight since fallling to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278 on Aug. 20, 2022. Aldo also held a 101-to-80 edge in total strikes landed.

26: Significant body strikes landed by Aldo. Martinez, meanwhile, landed nine.

10: Significant leg strikes for Aldo. Martinez had just seven. In his previous four UFC victories, Martinez outlanded his opponents 29 to 1, 18 to 8, 32 to 7 and 29 to 3 in significant leg strikes.

3,745: Days since Aldo last landed a takedown in UFC competition, when he secured two in a featherweight title defense against Ricardo Lamas at UFC 169 on Feb. 1, 2014. Aldo landed his first takedown since then when he grounded Martinez in the third frame.

35: Finishes among 37 professional victories for Anthony Smith, who submitted the previously unbeaten Vitor Petrino in the opening stanza of their light heavyweight bout.

8: UFC finishes at light heavyweight for Smith, tying him with Mauricio Rua and Paul Craig for the fifth most in the history of the division behind Glover Teixeira (13), Ovince St. Preux (11), Jon Jones (10) and Chuck Liddell (nine).

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1: Career submission via guillotine choke for Smith. “Lionheart,” who has 15 career triumphs by way of submission overall, earned his first victory via that maneuver against Petrino.

8: Consecutive victories for Michel Pereira, who has compiled his streak at both welterweight and middleweight. That ties him with Movsar Evloev for the third-longest winning streak in the promotion, regardless of weight class. Only Islam Makhachev (13) and Merab Dvalishvili (10) have longer winning streaks. Pereira submitted Ihor Potieria with a guillotine choke just 54 seconds into Round 1 of their 185-pound bout on Saturday.

3:01: Total time of Pereira’s three middleweight appearances, first-round stoppages of Potieria (0:54), Andre Petroski (1:06) and Michal Oleksiejczuk (1:01).

6: Consecutive victories for Caio Borralho, tying him with Brendan Allen for the second-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s middleweight division behind reigning champ Dricus Du Plessis (seven). Borralho defeated Paul Craig via second-round knockout in a featured contest at UFC 301.

1-4: Record for Craig since July 2022. “Bearjew” has been finished in three of those four defeats.

5: Consecutive finishes for Joanderson Brito, the second-longest active streak in the UFC behind only welterweight contender Shavkat Rakhmonov (six). Brito busted Jack Shore’s leg open with low kicks, which resulted in their fight being waved off by the cageside doctor at the 3:35 mark of Round 2.

22: Significant leg strikes landed by Brito. The Brazilian landed a total of 30 significant strikes overall against Shore.

16: Age difference, in years, between Karolina Kowalkiewicz (38) and Iasmin Lucindo (22) in their strawweight clash. The 5,939-day age gap is the largest for a women’s bout in UFC history. The previous largest gap of 5,715 days occurred in a matchup between Maycee Barber and Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 246. Lucindo outlanded Kowalkiewicz by an 83-to-42 count in significant strikes en route to a unanimous decision triumph.

5: Takedowns landed in 17 attempts by Myktybek Orolabi in a unanimous decision triumph over Elves Brener at lightweight. Brener, meanwhile, landed three of six takedowns in defeat. Orolbai enjoyed 7:12 of control time to 2:55 for his opponent.

4: Consecutive victories for Drakkar Klose, tying him with Mike Davis and Arman Tsarukyan for the fourth-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s lightweight division. Klose took a three-round verdict over Joaquim Silva in a preliminary affair on Saturday night. Only Islam Makhachev (12), Renato Carneiro (five) and Paddy Pimblett (five) have longer winning streaks at 155 pounds.

10: KO/TKO victories among 10 professional triumphs for Mauricio Ruffy, who continued that trend with a first-round stoppage of Jamie Mullarkey in a preliminary lightweight bout.

6: KO/TKO defeats among seven career losses for Mullarkey. Four of those have come in UFC competition.

111: Significant strikes landed by Ismael Bonfim in a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph over Vinc Pichel at lightweight. That’s the most significant strikes any opponent has landed against PIchel during his 11-bout UFC career. Pichel landed 61 significant strikes in defeat.

41: Age of Pichel, making him the oldest athlete on the UFC 301 card. Bonfim, his opponent, is 28 years old.

30: Significant strikes — including 12 to the legs — landed by Alessando Costa in just 95 seconds of second-round action against Kevin Borjas. By comparison, Borjas landed just three significant strikes in that same timeframe. Costa attacked with leg kicks to immobilize his foe before finishing with ground-and-pound at the 1:35 mark of Round 2.