Fight Facts: UFC 238
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC on ESPN+ live on your computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.
Advertisement
* * *
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 5176
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 481
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday returned to the United Center in Chicago with a pair of title bouts and a lightweight battle that could easily serve as a pay-per-view main event on its own. UFC 238 featured the crowning of a new champ-champ, a head kick for the ages and two action heroes who earned post-fight bonuses by just stepping into the cage.
LET THEM FIGHT: Five women’s bouts took place at UFC 238, the most of any card outside of “The Ultimate Fighter 20” Finale (eight fights) and “The Ultimate Fighter 26” Finale (seven fights).
BECOMING A REGULAR THING: With eight fights ending via unanimous verdict, UFC 238 joined 10 other events with the second-most unanimous decisions at a single show. UFC 169 holds the most with nine.
OH HENRY: Henry Cejudo became the fourth fighter in UFC history to simultaneously hold titles in two divisions, joining Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes.
A PLAGUE O’ BOTH YOUR DIVISIONS: Throughout UFC history, the company has now seen four two-division champions. From 1993 to 2016, a span of over 23 years, there were none. In the past calendar year, there have been three. None have yet attempted to defend both belts after winning the second.
SHE WAS AN ACCOMPLISHED KICKBOXER …: By flattening Jessica Eye in the second round, Valentina Shevchenko earned the fourth head kick knockout in UFC women’s divisional history. All four knockouts of this nature have earned post-fight bonuses, as Shevchenko snagged “Performance of the Night” for her win.
STARCH-ENKO: Shevchenko’s head kick knockout marked the first-ever clean KO in the UFC women’s flyweight division.
LOST MY ONE GOOD EYE: The loss was Eye’s sixth under the UFC banner. She tied Cortney Casey and Kailin Curran for the second-most defeats in women’s divisional history.
THERE’S ONLY ONE FIGHT TO MAKE: Tony Ferguson extended his winning streak to 12 fights with his finish of Donald Cerrone. Among active fighters, Ferguson owns the longest such streak, the victory over Cerrone breaking his tie with current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. During his streak, Ferguson has finished nine of his opponents and earned nine post-fight bonuses.
ANOTHER LEVEL: Only five other fighters in UFC history have had longer winning streaks than Ferguson: Anderson Silva (16), Jon Jones (13), Demetrious Johnson (13), Georges St. Pierre (13) and Max Holloway (13). Of those streaks, St. Pierre’s is the only one still intact, although he has retired.
‘NO MAS’ FERGACHENKO: By forcing the doctor to intervene to save Cerrone from fighting with only one eye, Ferguson became the second fighter to stop two consecutive opponents between rounds. Anthony Pettis last faced Ferguson, losing by corner stoppage at the end of the second round. Jimi Manuwa was the first to pull off the feat, finishing Kyle Kingsbury and Cyrille Diabate in such fashion. However, Ferguson was the first to do so at the end of the second stanza both times.
THE EMBODIMENT OF VIOLENCE: In his last eight fights, Ferguson has earned eight post-fight bonuses. He was awarded “Fight of the Night” honors following his battle with Cerrone. While his bout with Kevin Lee did not earn bonus money, he earned two bonuses by submitting Edson Barboza at the “The Ultimate Fighter 22” Finale.
18 AND LIFE: Even though he lost, Cerrone picked up his 18th post-fight bonus, extending his own record. Despite this record number of post-fight bonuses, he does not hold the most in any single category. Nate Diaz has the most “Fight of the Night” bonuses, while Charles Oliveira holds more “Performance of the Night” awards than any other fighter.
BEAUTIFULLY BALANCED BLAGOY: Blagoy Ivanov beat Tai Tuivasa by decision, earning his 18th career victory. In those wins, Ivanov has won six times by knockout, six times by submission and six times by decision.
MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS: In losing a razor-thin decision to Xiaonan Yan, Angela Hill suffered her seventh loss inside the Octagon, giving her the most of any female fighter in promotional history.
QUALITY CONTROL: In his last six outings, Darren Stewart has faced five fighters who earned contracts from Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. After taking a decision from Bevon Lewis, his record against them stands at 2-3.
RACKING UP MAT TIME: After taking a decision win over Joanne Calderwood, all seven of Katlyn Chookagian’s UFC fights have gone the distance. Three of her 14 career fights have ended before the final bell, but she was on the winning end of all three.
CECIL PEOPLES DID NOT CARE: Calderwood landed 69 leg strikes in the bout, the most of any three-round UFC fight, and still lost. Only two other fights -- Joanna Jedrzejczyk against Jessica Andrade (75) and Jedrzejczyk against Valerie Letourneau (70) -- featured more, but both were title fights.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC 238, Eye had never been knocked out (21 fights), Tuivasa (nine fights) and Lewis (seven fights) had never lost on the scorecards and Petr Yan had never competed outside of Asia (12 fights).
TONY WANTS TO PARTY ALL THE TIME: For the entirety of his UFC career, Ferguson has walked out to “The Party Has Just Begun” by Freestyle. “El Cucuy” celebrates an incredible 15-1 record with the track, including 11 stoppages.
I’M NOT FOLLOWING THE STORY ARC HERE: Tuivasa made his confident walk to the cage accompanied by “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams, a first for recorded UFC walkout music. Tuivasa lost a decision to Blagoy Ivanov.
JUST A STEEL TOWN GIRL ON A SATURDAY NIGHT: Calderwood changed her walkout music to “Maniac” by Michael Sembello from the “Flashdance” soundtrack and lost a decision. She was not the first fighter to walk out to this song, as John Maguire used it once at UFC 161 in 2013 and lost a decision to Mitch Clarke.
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.
Related Articles
