Fight Facts: UFC 225 ‘Whittaker vs. Romero 2’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all the interesting information and Octagon oddities 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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The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday touched down in Chicago for the sixth time, as UFC 225 featured a veritable bonus-winning machine, a younger brother who fully stepped out of his older sibling’s shadow and a fighter who thrilled the crowd by walking out to Celine Dion.

TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 4,678
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 441

DON’T HATE, APPRECIATE: Ronda Rousey accomplished a great deal for women’s MMA, so the announcement of her induction into the UFC Hall of Fame during the UFC 225 broadcast came as little surprise. She retired as the only female fighter to defend her belt six times and currently ranks second all-time with the most stoppage victories in UFC women’s divisional history with six, behind only current champ Amanda Nunes.

SHOWING FAVORTISM: In the 13 bouts to take place at UFC 225, only one betting underdog prevailed: Sergio Pettis (+170) upset Joseph Benavidez (-200) by decision. Dan Ige-Mike Santiago Chris de la Rocha-Rashad Coulter were considered pick-em fights, where the odds were virtually even.

DECISIONATORS: UFC 225 became the first pay-per-view event since UFC 192 in 2015 in which every fight on the main card went to the scorecards.

BOBBY BIG BUCKS: In his last four fights, Robert Whittaker has won five post-fight bonuses; and after his second bout against Yoel Romero in the UFC 225 headliner, he was awarded both halves of the post-fight bonus, earning $100,000 for his thrilling win over the 2000 Olympic silver medalist. Whittaker has now won seven post-fight bonuses in his last eight fights, with all of his post-fight bonuses coming after he moved up to middleweight.

SCALED DOWN: By missing weight for his potential middleweight title fight against Whittaker, Romero became the first fighter to miss weight for more than one title fight. Romero previously missed weight against Luke Rockhold in what was to be an interim title bout at UFC 221.

PROFESSIONALISM 101: Romero’s rematch with Whittaker was the third non-title fight taken by a champion in UFC history after a prospective challenger missed weight. In all three of those bouts, the champion has prevailed, as Travis Lutter and Joe Riggs missed weight before getting submitted by champions Anderson Silva and Matt Hughes, respectively.

STAYING POWER: In suffering his 10th UFC defeat, Andrei Arlovski joined Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga and Roy Nelson as the only heavyweights to lose at least 10 times inside the Octagon.

CASH GRAB: The bout between Mike Jackson and Phil Brooks was the first fight in modern UFC history featured on a pay-per-view main card between two fighters with losing records.

THE BIG 2000: The bout between Claudia Gadelha and Carla Esparza resulted in the 2,000th decision in UFC history. Decision victories have accounted for roughly 43 percent of all wins inside the Octagon.

RETURN OF THE SHADFACE: For the first time in UFC history, the only two fighters on the roster named Rashad -- Rashad Evans and Rashad Coulter -- were featured on the same card, and they were both knocked out. Coulter was stopped for the fourth time in his career. In fact, all 12 of his professional bouts have ended in a finish.

THEY HAVE A STRONG BOND: Sergio Pettis, younger brother of former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, now has more UFC wins (eight) than his older brother after defeating Joseph Benavidez by split decision. Prior to UFC 225, the Pettis brothers were tied with seven UFC wins each.

SICK JITS: Prior to their showdown, Clay Guida and Charles Oliveira had earned a combined 19 post-fight bonuses, and their fight was good for one more: Oliveira picked up a “Performance of the Night” bonus for submitting Guida with a guillotine choke. It was the Brazilian’s 10th win by submission in 20 UFC appearances, breaking a tie with Nate Diaz and Demian Maia. Oliveira is now tied for first with Royce Gracie on the UFC’s all-time list in submissions.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Prior to UFC 225, Benavidez had never lost a non-title fight at 125 pounds (11 fights), Tai Tuivasa had never fought beyond the first round (seven fights) and Colby Covington had never fought in a five-round fight (14 fights).

TOUCHED, MOVED AND ROCKED BUT NEVER SHOOK: For the ninth time in his UFC career, Whittaker walked out to “Can’t Be Touched” by rap group Body Head Bangerz. He has never lost while accompanied by the track … Tuivasa became the first recorded fighter to walk out to a Celine Dion song when he walked out to Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” much to the delight of the commentary booth … Walking out to “Bangarang” by dubstep artist Skrillex featuring Sirah, Mike Santiago was knocked out in the first round by Dan Ige. Recorded fighters that walk out to tracks by Skrillex have a record of 2-8, with five of those losses coming by stoppage.

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