Fight Facts: UFC 271 ‘Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2’

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of 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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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 6,482
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 593

The Ultimate Fighting Championship shuffled off to Houston for an overstuffed fight card pitting the U.S. against the world in most of its lineup. Most fighting in their home country ended up losing against foreign opponents, but this allowed for several torch-passing moments and plenty of action. UFC 271 featured a slew of dramatic knockdowns, a boisterous beer-swilling slugger skyrocketing to stardom and the exciting end of an era for one women’s MMA pioneer.

U-S-Nay: At UFC 271, 10 of 14 bouts pitted an American fighter against a foreign counterpart, and the U.S.-based fighters fared poorly. Only Bobby Green, Kyler Phillips and Jeremiah Wells defeated their international foes.

They Messed With Texas: Three competitors out of Texas fought on this card, and not a single one emerged victorious. Derrick Lewis, Alexander Hernandez and Leomana Martinez all fell by night’s end. The two from New England – Fabio Cherant and William Knight – also lost.

Plenty of Swangin’ and Bangin’: Throughout the course of the 14-fight card, the competitors recorded 12 knockdowns. This total ties UFCs 170, 215 and 230 for the fourth-most in organizational history. Only UFC Fight Night 126 (13) and UFC 199 and Fight Night 192 (15 each) have topped that.

Dropping Bows: With a pair of main card tilts ending with one fighter unconscious due to elbow strikes, UFC 271 became the third card in company history to feature multiple clean knockouts from elbows. This first happened at UFC 2 in 1994, and then again at the Season 17 “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale in 2013.

Chasing “The Spider”: Claiming a close decision over Robert Whittaker in their rematch, Israel Adesanya earned his 11th win in a row as a middleweight. This victorious streak only trails Anderson Silva, who pulled off 13 victories in a row when hitting the scales as a 185er.

He’s Got S-T-Y-L-E: “The Last Stylebender” successfully defended his undisputed strap for the fourth time by beating Whittaker a second time. The only active champ with more consecutive title defenses is Kamaru Usman with five.

Izzy Will Get It: In the first round, Adesanya dropped Whittaker to earn his 12th knockdown as a UFC middleweight. In doing so, he tied Nate Marquardt for the second-most in divisional history, and he is one shy of former foe Silva’s 13.

Putting the “Bam” in “Bam Bam”: Smiting Lewis with an elbow strike in the second round, Tai Tuivasa earned the biggest win of his career as he lifted his knockout rate to a sky-high 93%.

Go For Six, Tai: The knockout by Tuivasa was his fifth in a row, putting him a tie for the heavyweight record with Ricco Rodriguez, Stipe Miocic, Junior dos Santos and Francis Ngannou for the most consecutive knockout victories in UFC heavyweight history. None has achieved a sixth.

D-I AA Lewis: While he ultimately succumbed to the second-round knockout, Lewis managed to ground Tuivasa twice in their six minutes and 40 seconds of combat. This is a new personal best for “The Black Beast,” who had landed single takedowns on seven of his previous UFC opponents.

Shot Out of a Cannon: Punching his ticket to a title shot, Jared Cannonier smashed Derek Brunson with elbows to get the stoppage in Round 2. “The Killa Gorilla” celebrates a finish rate of 80% as a pro, with 10 now coming by knockout.

Rear-Naked Renato: Renato Carneiro tapped Alexander Hernandez with a rear-naked choke in Round 2. Every finish for “Moicano” has come by submission, and all of those subs have been in the form of a rear-naked choke.

Prime Bobby Green at 35: The 188 significant strikes landed by Bobby Green on Nasrat Haqparast not only smashed his personal record of 143, but also clocked in as the third-most in any UFC lightweight fight. Green won by clear-cut decision.

An Arlover, and an Arfighter: Andrei Arlovski entered into the Octagon for the 37th time when he took on and beat Jared Vanderaa by an unexpected split decision. Only Jim Miller has fought more times as a UFC fighter, who will go for his 39th in a week.

Same Fight, Copy and Paste: Getting his hand raised for the 22nd time since joining the UFC roster in 2000, Arlovski continues to build on his record in his division, putting him five ahead of the next closest fighter in Lewis. “The Pit Bull” is one win away from the most ever, as Donald Cerrone’s 23 victories represent the pinnacle of the promotion.

A Complete Redevelopment: The Belarusian has now laid claim to 11 decision victories throughout his illustrious career, and all nine of his last wins have come on the scorecards. His 11 wins at the hands of the judges is tied for the fifth-most in company history, putting him being Georges St. Pierre, Diego Sanchez, Brad Tavares and Neil Magny, who all hold 12.

A King is She: Casey O'Neill remains undefeated at 9-0 after taking a contentious split decision over Roxanne Modafferi. The Aussie born in Scotland lumped her opponent up with 229 significant strikes, demolishing the flyweight record of 186, set by Nicco Montano against Modafferi in 2017.

Get the Ice: When the dust settled, O’Neill and Modafferi had combined for 349 significant strikes, also setting that record for women’s flyweights by surpassing Montano-Modafferi’s 318. Among all women’s fights inside the Octagon, it only trails Weili Zhang vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s 351 at UFC 248 in 2020.

A Happy Career: After losing a hard-fought battle to O’Neill, Modafferi retired, putting an end to a career that started in 2003. With two appearances on “The Ultimate Fighter,” a shot at the flyweight strap in 2017 and wins over many of the toughest women in the sport – including names like Marloes Coenen, Jennifer Howe (twice), Vanessa Porto and Tara LaRosa – “The Happy Warrior” will end her time in the sport after 45 pro bouts, a record among all women to ever compete in MMA.

Sixteen, Not Eight: Kyler Phillips landed a rare triangle armbar in the third round on Marcelo Rojo. It was the 16th in UFC history – not counting the unusual reverse variety pulled off once by Erick Silva in 2013 – and only the second among bantamweights. Marlon Vera first achieved this feat at 135 pounds by tapping Roman Salazar with one at UFC Fight Night 73 in 2015.

Run Ronnie Run: Ronnie Lawrence and Martinez each dropped one another multiple times in their three-round tilt, with Lawrence recording three and Martinez earning two of his own. This marks the second fight in company history where both fighters landed more than one knockdown, with this first happening between Yancy Medeiros and Alex Oliveira at UFC 218 in 2017.

Quit Sleeping on the Job: Douglas Silva de Andrade and Wells recorded back-to-back technical submission victories due to rear-naked chokes over Sergey Morozov and Mike Mathetha, respectively. Consecutive technical submissions last occurred at UFC Fight Night 94 in 2016, when Gabriel Benitez and Chas Skelly landed them in their fights. This unlikely scenario first played out atop UFC 140 in the co-main and main event battles. Incidentally, Skelly and Benitez are both scheduled to compete at UFC Fight Night 201 this Saturday — though not back-to-back, sadly.

It’s All Coming Back to Me Now: Recording the submission at 3:34 of the second frame, Silva de Andrade locked in his first submission since he tapped Jorge Rodrigues in March 2008. At that time, just four of the other 27 fighters at UFC 271 including his opponent had made their professional debuts.

He Did the Math: Putting the no-longer-undefeated Mathetha out in the first round, Wells finds himself on a four-fight finish streak. The Philadelphia native now posts a stoppage rate of 80% as a pro, with half of those coming by rear-naked choke and the other half with his fists.

Cutting 36 Pounds in Two Weeks Didn’t Work: Taking the fight on two weeks’ notice, Knight tipped the scales at 218 pounds for his light heavyweight contest with Maxim Grishin. This 12-pound weight miss is the most egregious of any fighter in UFC history who still ended up competing, and Knight subsequently fell short by unanimous decision.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC 271, Hernandez had never been submitted (17 fights), Cherant had never lost on the scorecards (10 fights) and A.J. Dobson had never been defeated (seven fights).

Can Be Touched: For the first time in his career, Whittaker lost after walking out to “Can’t Be Touched” by Body Head Bangerz, the rap group helmed by boxer Roy Jones Jr. The former champ was 12-0 when using this track before coming up short to Adesanya.

Crowd-Pleaser: Ever the entertainer, Tuivasa’s walkout music choice of the night came in the form of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” Like several of his past choices including one from the Spice Girls and another from Aqua, he is the first fighter to use this song for a walkout. “Bam Bam” subsequently knocked Lewis out cold.

Vroom Vroom: Silva de Andrade went off-script with his entrance tune, going with “Track 1” off of the soundtrack for the Super Nintendo game “Top Gear.” No other fighter had ever picked music from this video game in the past, and he won his fight.