Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 176

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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: 5,759
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 531

The Ultimate Fighting Championship barely made it to fight night after multiple withdrawals on Saturday, but still delivered on action. This seven-fight UFC Fight Night 176 card may have brought the fewest fights on a UFC card since 2005, but it featured a fifth-round rarity and one of the all-time light heavyweight finish leaders doing it again.

WOULD THE UFC HAVE RUN THIS CARD WITH FIVE FIGHTS? Seven fights took place throughout the night at UFC Fight Night 176, the fewest since the TUF 2 Finale in November 2005.

WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ PRELIMS: All seven fights on the card were moved to the main card following multiple cancellations on fight day, making this the first event since UFC 37.5 in 2002 to feature zero preliminary pairings.

MAIN CARD IN MY HEART: UFC 20 introduced preliminary matches, when Ron Waterman fought Chris Condo on the one-fight prelim card. Since they came about, only UFCs 22, UFC 36, UFC 37.5 and now UFC Fight Night 176 went on without tournament matches or preliminaries.

AND NO POSTLIMS EITHER: Although a rarity, the last seven-fight main card came recently at UFC on ESPN 14, when 15 fights took place throughout the marathon event. Prior to the COVID-19 era, the last time 14 fighters competed on the main card was UFC 190 in 2015, topped by Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia in Brazil.

THE DEMOLITION QUADRAGENARIAN: Alistair Overeem notched his 42nd career stoppage victory when he put Augusto Sakai away in the fifth round. In victory, “The Demolition Man” improved his finish rate to 89 percent.

YOU HAVE TO FIGHT BACK: The stoppage came at 26 seconds into the fifth frame, and just four finishes have occurred later across UFC heavyweight history. Overeem was on the receiving end of the loss in the latest, when Jairzinho Rozenstruik knocked him out with four seconds remaining.

DEEP WATER AVENGER: As Overeem has now won and lost a UFC bout in Round 5, he is the second fighter in organizational history – Glover Teixeira the first, doing so in May – to achieve this feat.

HE CAN GET THERE BEFORE HE RETIRES: Overeem’s knockout was his ninth as a UFC fighter, and he along with four others trail only Cain Velasquez (10) and Derrick Lewis (11) for the most knockouts in UFC heavyweight history.

TEN FOR TENN: Ovince St. Preux earned his 10th finish as a UFC light heavyweight when he sparked Alonzo Menifield. Tying Jon Jones, the only fighter with more stoppages in the division’s history is Teixeira (11). Of note, “OSP” also beat Marcos Rogerio de Lima inside the distance, but the bout was a 210-pound catchweight contest.

CHUCK ST. PREUX: The win at 205 pounds was St. Preux’s 12th on the UFC roster, putting him alone with the sixth-most in promotional history. Only Rashad Evans and Chuck Liddell (13 each), Ryan Bader and Teixeira (14 each) and Jones (20) have recorded more victories at light heavyweight.

WATCH OUT FOR THE APPEAL: Welterweight Michel Pereira forced the referee to intervene and stop the fight at 4:39 of the third round against Zelim Imadaev by rear-naked choke. It was the second-latest submission in UFC welterweight non-title history, while only nine stoppages in 170-pound non-title fights have ever come later.

ANDRE DON’T PLAY: By tapping Bartosz Fabinski with a first-round armbar, Andre Muniz lifted his submission rate to 65 percent as well as his overall finish rate to 85 percent. The Brazilian has now dispatched 13 foes in the first round.

KELLEHURRY: Brian Kelleher earned the fastest submission inside the Octagon in 2020 when he tapped Ray Rodriguez with a 39-second guillotine choke. The quickest that preceded it this year came at the hands of Renato Moicano, when he hit a 44-second rear-naked choke on Damir Hadzovic in March.

THE THIRTY-NINE CHOKES: Kelleher’s submission in 39 seconds is the quickest performed since UFC Fight Night 127 in 2018, when Danny Henry also needed 39 seconds to submit Hakeem Dawodu with a guillotine choke at featherweight.

HERE COMES THE BOOM: The 39-second submission from “Boom” is now tied with Henry for the second-fastest in UFC featherweight history. Chas Skelly holds the top spot with his 19-second anaconda choke technical submission of Maximo Blanco at UFC Fight Night 94 in 2016.

VERY UN-VIVI: For the third time in her career, Viviane Araujo reached the judges’ scorecards, as each of the Brazilian’s last three fights have gone the distance. “Vivi” started her career with eight consecutive stoppages, win or lose.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 176, Sakai (17 fights) and Menifield (10 fights) had never been finished, Imadaev had never been submitted (10 fights) and Cole Smith had never dropped consecutive bouts (eight fights).

THE EMINEM MIDPOINT: When he walked out to the most frequently used Eminem track of “Til I Collapse” featuring Nate Dogg, Muniz emerged victorious by armbar. With his triumph, Muniz lifted the track’s record to a perfectly even number of wins and losses, along with a draw and a no contest.

BAH GAWD THAT’S STONE COLD’S MUSIC: Although Kelleher is far from the first fighter to walk out to a tune created by WWE composer Jim Johnston, he was the first to use “I Won’t Do What You Tell Me”, made famous as the theme song for “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Kelleher won in dominant fashion.