Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 189

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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: 6,144
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 565

The Ultimate Fighting Championship rebounded from a week off to start a run that commenced with an overstuffed Fight Night card. The few ranked fighters of this 13-bout offering managed to make headway in their divisions with solid stoppage wins. UFC Fight Night 189 ended as a rough night for unbeaten fighters, while featuring an increasingly common eye poke stoppage and a strange distinction for a fight that never even happened.

No 0 No Mo’: Three fighters came into UFC Fight Night 189 with unbeaten records, and each ended the night with those records shattered. Miguel Baeza dropped a thrilling decision to Santiago Ponzinibbio, Tabatha Ricci was knocked out by Manon Fiorot and Jordan Leavitt lost a unanimous verdict to Claudio Puelles.

Bigi Punch: At the tail end of the first round, Jairzinho Rozenstruik put Augusto Sakai away with a barrage of punches. It is the 11th knockout across the 12 career wins for “Bigi Boy,” lifting his knockout rate to 92 percent.

Strength of Suriname: Of those 11 knockouts for the Suriname native, eight of those have now taken place in the opening frame. Before now, none of his recorded first-round knockouts had come after the 2:36 mark of the round.

Buzzer: Beaten: The stoppage came at 4:59 of the opening round, making Rozenstruik the sixth UFC heavyweight to record a finish at this point in a round. Mike Kyle, Tim Sylvia, Matt Mitrione, Walt Harris and Tai Tuivasa have all achieved this feat, with all but Harris’ taking place in Round 1.

Roman Huglidze: Although he started his career off by notching seven consecutive finishes, including five in the first round, the last three bouts for Roman Dolidze have gone the distance. The Georgian earned his second decision victory in a lackluster win over Laureano Staropoli, thereby dropping his finish rate to 78 percent.

Buys A Lot of Caramel: Coming up short in a terrific “Fight of the Night” battle to Ponzinibbio, Baeza pocketed $50k for his troubles. The last three appearances for “Caramel Thunder” have netted him post-fight bonus money.

Your Move, Creep: Needing three full rounds to beat Dusko Todorovic, Gregory Rodrigues made his successful promotional debut with a unanimous decision win. “Robocop” now posts a stoppage rate of 80 percent with his triumph.

Technically Noteworthy: By knocking out Ariane Lipski, Montana De La Rosa technically tied the women’s flyweight record for the most stoppage triumphs in that division’s history. Both Valentina Shevchenko and Gillian Robertson notched four at 125 pounds, although Robertson did also score one over Molly McCann when McCann missed the flyweight limit.

The Emergent De La Rosa: Recording her fourth stoppage inside the Octagon, De La Rosa tied Cristiane Justino and several other women for the seventh-most finish victories in UFC women’s divisional history. Amanda Nunes stands above with 10, with no other woman sporting more than six.

Not for Lack of Trying: In 2013, Muslim Salikhov required 15 minutes to defeat Deyan Topalski and earn his first decision win. After overcoming Topalski, Salikhov went on a 13-fight streak of bouts ending inside the distance, win or lose. Since then, the “King of Kung Fu” has rattled off three wins on the scorecards.

Pride Gloves by Armbar: Midway through the second round, Alan Patrick suffered an eye poke from Mason Jones that forced a stoppage resulting in a no contest. It is the ninth such ruling inside the cage in UFC history, and the fourth in the last two years.

A New Player at 125: Fiorot smashed Ricci in the second round to advance her career finish rate to 86 percent. Each of the Frenchwoman’s stoppage wins have come by knockout, with five knockouts in her last five victories.

Fighting’s Not for Everyone: Withdrawing from his match with Antonio Arroyo right before it was set to take place on Saturday, Tom Breese is now the first fighter in modern UFC history to pull out of multiple bouts on fight day for non-COVID reasons. Breese previously withdrew from a fight with Ian Heinisch right before UFC Fight Night 147 in 2019.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC Fight Night 189, Sakai (18 fights), Makwan Amirkhani (23 fights) and Todorovic (11 fights) had never dropped consecutive bouts; De La Rosa had never won by knockout (18 fights) and Kamuela Kirk had never won by decision (15 fights).

The Thunderstruck Curse: Todorovic walked out to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” and AC/DC retains its place with the lowest winning percentage of any walkout artist with over 30 uses.

A Trans-Continental Hustle: Tanner Boser made his walk to the cage accompanied by “Last One Goes the Hope” by gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Although he dropped a contentious split verdict to Ilir Latifi, he did become the first fighter in UFC history to ever walk out to a Gogol Bordello song.