Fight Facts: UFC 274 ‘Oliveira vs. Gaethje’

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: 6,618
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 604

The Ultimate Fighting Championship staged unquestionably one of the strangest events in recent memory, with moments of greatness and misery throughout the trudging 14-fight endeavor. One of the most spectacular knockouts ever seen preceded a 25-minute dreadful slog, providing more peaks and valleys through the night than West Virginia hill country. UFC 274 featured the submission specialist with no equal in that department, a championship bout that will not even be useful as tape study and the dulcet tones of Reba McEntire over the speakers of the Footprint Center.

Practically No Replay Value: Of the 14 fights booked at UFC 274, 10 of the ended on the scorecards. The lone event with more came at UFC 263, also in Arizona, when 11 of those 14 matches went the distance.

Judges Going Every Which Way: Five of the 10 decisions littered throughout the night came as the split variety. This tally ties UFC Fight Night 79 and UFC 222 for the most of any single UFC card.

That’s Embarrassing: Both the co-headliner and headlining victors ended the night by scoring an identical number of significant strikes in their matches. It took Charles Oliveira 3 minutes and 22 seconds to land 30, while Carla Esparza tallied the same amount over five full rounds.

The Belt Belongs in a Museum: After a thrilling battle, Oliveira tapped out Justin Gaethje in the opening round. Oliveira had his title stripped when the cage door closed due to missing championship weight, making him the first defending champ to ever miss weight and surrender their belt on the scales.

Uncrowned Champ: Oliveira earned an official number one contender match against an undetermined challenger with his submission over Gaethje. The finish was Oliveira’s 19th, extending the record for “Do Bronx” for the most in company history.

Gracies in the Rear-View Mirror: Sixteen of Oliveira’s 19 victories are by tapout after he elicited a tap from Gaethje. His own record has been elevated once more, with no one recording more than 11 (Demian Maia).

Greatness on Multiple Counts: “Do Bronx” pulled off his 21st win under the UFC banner with his submission. He is now one of five in UFC history to win more than 20 bouts, joining Maia (22), and Donald Cerrone, Jim Miller and Andre Arlovski (23 each).

A Death-Defying Streak: The win was Oliveira’s 11th in a row, making him one of 12 fighters throughout organizational history to amass a win streak above 10.

The May-December Schedule: Appearing for fight no. 30, Oliveira is the ninth UFC fighter to ever reach that mark. The top spot goes to former foe Jim Miller, who has fought with the promotion 39 times thus far.

Do or Do Bronx, There Is No Try: Needing two official tries to tap Gaethje, Oliveira registered his 40th submission attempt in the process. His total trails only Miller, who sports 45 throughout his illustrious career.

Good Luck Keeping It: Esparza regained her strawweight title when she claimed a split decision over Rose Namajunas. She is the second two-time champ in the division’s history, while she was the inaugural titleholder that first claimed it in 2014.

Statistically and Historically Terrible: After 25 minutes of inactivity, Esparza and Namajunas combined to land 67 significant strikes. This is not the lowest number for a UFC fight that lasted 25 minutes or longer, as Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock only connected with 34 total after their 30-minute UFC 9 rematch.

The Pattern Never Fails: “Thug Rose” has established a pattern since debuting with the promotion in 2014, with a loss to Esparza. After a loss, Namajunas has rattled off three straight wins and then suffered a defeat. This has repeated itself through her entire UFC career, with her current three-fight win streak ending at the hands of Esparza.

Nom Nom Nom: “Cookie Monster” recorded her 10th win in the strawweight division, tying Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the most in UFC women’s 115-pound history. Both she and Jedrzejczyk have earned eight of those 10 wins by decision, also the most at the weight class.

Move Over Silva and Machida: Early into Round 2, Michael Chandler annihilated Tony Ferguson with a front kick. His knockout due to a front kick is the ninth in UFC history, and like all of those past eight victors, Chandler earned a post-fight bonus for his effort.

The Mike with Iron Fists: With his stoppage due to the strike, “Iron Mike” improved his career finish rate to 78%. Five of his last six wins have come by finish dating back to 2018.

Forget It Happened: In his rematch with Mauricio Rua, Ovince St. Preux won a middling split decision over “Shogun.” The victory on the scorecards is the St. Preux’ first since 2016, ending a streak of six finishes when getting his hand raised.

Rude Numbers: The three-round bout of Randy Brown vs. Kalinn Williams resulted in a split decision win for Brown. “Rude Boy” celebrates six knockouts in his career, five wins by submission and four decisions. On the flip side, he has suffered three stoppage defeats, including two knockout losses, and one setback on the scorecards.

Yeah Baby, He Likes It Raw: After two-plus minutes of frenetic action, Brandon Royval submitted Matt Schnell. “Raw Dawg” has achieved 12 of his 14 career wins by stoppage, checking in with an 86% finish rate as a flyweight.

Slow Like Fred Flintstone: Since his lone appearance after the Professional Fighters League name change in 2017, Blagoy Ivanov has never ended a fight inside the distance or suffered a stoppage loss. The last seven fights for the Bulgarian heavyweight all ended by decision.

Best Fighter to Come From Portugal: Andre Fialho is the first UFC fighter this year to register three appearances, debuting unsuccessfully against Michel Pereira and rebounding with first-round knockouts over Miguel Baeza and Cameron VanCamp. The Portugal-based fighter has earned 13 of 16 (81%) of his wins by knockout.

Another Flyweight Up-and-Comer: In a three-round performance, Tracy Cortez topped Melissa Gatto by decision. The Arizona native has seen eight of her 10 victories come on the scorecards, including each of her last six outings.

Loopy Fight Results: Lupita Godinez handled Ariane Carnelossi to win by clear-cut decision, putting her on her first win streak since 2020. “Loopy” posts a low finish rate of 25%.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC 274, Ferguson had never suffered a clean knockout (31 fights); Danny Roberts (23 fights), Dumont (eight fights) and Carnelossi (16 fights) had never lost on the scorecards and Gatto had never been defeated (10 fights).

The Wrong Sail: For much of his UFC tenure and dating back to his Pride Fighting Championships days, Rua walked out to “Sail” by Armin Van Buuren. Instead of this song, for his fight with “OSP,” Rua ended up with “Sail” by Awolnation instead. Rua lost.

Still Love You Like That: Brown changed up his walkout tune to Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper,” as he has not repeated entrance music since 2017. With his triumph over Williams, he lifted the track’s paltry UFC win percentage to .222.

Fancy, Don’t Let Me Down: Schnell made the unusual choice of picking “Fancy” by Reba McEntire ahead of his matchup with Royval. Although he lost, he became the first recorded fighter in company history to walk out to a track by the “Queen of Country.”