Fight Facts: LFA 68

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS: 593
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA EVENTS: 69

Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday made its way back to its second home in Prior Lake, Minnesota, and did so with a card bookended by thrilling knockouts. LFA 68 featured the return of the most active fighter in the company returning, a fighter who likely put himself on the shortlist of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series hopefuls and a fighter who jumped up two weight classes to keep a bout together.

WHAT’S SO MYSTIC ABOUT THE LAKE?: The LFA touched down at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel for the 10th time. It has held more shows at the venue than any other.

THE RULE OF 11: Three fighters -- Rafael Barbosa, Raufeon Stots and Mike Rhodes -- came into the event with exactly 11 wins on their records, and all three emerged victorious.

PACK IT UP, LET’S GO HOME: With Barbosa having dispatched Nate Jennerman in the opening stanza of the headlining bout, six of the last seven -- and eight of the last 11 -- LFA main events have ended by first-round stoppage.

ELBARBOWSA: Although he needed follow-up punches to seal the deal, Barbosa became the first LFA fighter to score a knockout stemming from a single elbow strike when he smashed Jennerman.

COUNTDOWN WITH RAFAEL: After finishing Jennerman with strikes, Barbosa now holds five wins by knockout, four by decision and three by submission. “Coxinha” has won each of his two LFA bouts and has only one loss, which came by tapout.

BAD BREAK FOR BOBBY: In dropping a decision to Maicon Mendonca, Bobby Lee earned his fourth loss inside the LFA cage, tying Darrick Minner for the most defeats in company history.

UNLUCKY 13: Lee made his 13th combined appearance inside the LFA, Resurrection Fighting Alliance or Legacy Fighting Championship cages. He has competed more for those organizations than any other fighter, having fought for one of those companies in all but one of his career bouts.

LEE ISN’T LAZY: The bout with Mendonca extended Lee’s record as the most active competitor in the promotion’s history, as he fought under the LFA banner for the ninth time. Jennerman fought for the eighth time in the LFA, good for the second-most appearances with the company.

HE’S TOO MUCH: After tapping Derek Varin in the first round with a rear-naked choke, all five of J.P. Saint Louis’ career victories have come by first-round stoppage. He has advanced beyond the first round only twice, losing on both occasions.

WEIGHT CUTTING IS OVERRATED: Leville Simpson was originally slated to face Lucas Clay at this event, but Clay did not attend weigh-ins. As a result, Tyler Mathison stepped in on 24 hours’ notice. Mathison, a featherweight, competed 25 pounds above his normal weight class and ultimately lost to Simpson in a competitive split decision.

TAKE A BAU: By smashing Bobby Downs with a picture-perfect head kick, Joel Bauman became the third middleweight in organizational history to record a head kick knockout. He joins Kailan Hill and Jered Gwerder. All three have landed these knockouts in less than three minutes.

SHEER INEXPERIENCE: Craig Eckelberg landed an illegal knee on Nelly Thompson in their untelevised preliminary bout, stopping their fight at 2:01 of the first round. The disqualification was the fifth in promotional history, with four resulting from illegal knees. Three of the five DQs inside the LFA cage have now taken place on the professional MMA opener of their respective events.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into LFA 68, Cristhian Torres had never lost on the scorecards (23 fights), Downs had never been knocked out (five fights) and Bauman had never won by stoppage (two fights).

Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.