Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 203 ‘Santos vs. Ankalaev’

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: 6,532
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 597

The Ultimate Fighting Championship put on quite a show with an overstuffed lineup on Saturday that brought several of the promotion’s best and brightest to the forefront. Violence was certainly on the menu for this fight card that started with five straight finishes and did not let up until the main event. UFC Fight Night 203 featured a knockout loss for a former title challenger that set a record, a body kick that echoed through the building and a few huge comebacks throughout the evening.

Less than Inspiring: Claiming a decision over Thiago Santos in the headliner, Magomed Ankalaev improved his win streak to eight straight as he fought into the fifth round for the first time in his career. His past latest fight concluded 63 seconds into Round 4 when he knocked Maxim Grishin out in 2016.

A Win While Losing: In a slight moral victory, Santos dropped Ankalaev in Round 2. Although he lost the decision, “Marreta” did become the first UFC fighter to ever knock the Dagestan native down with strikes, as Ankalaev had previously recorded six knockdowns across his past eight appearances.

Stealing the Magic: Yadong Song cleaned Marlon Moraes’ clock at 2:06 of the first round with a quick punch combination, putting “Magic” Moraes on a four-fight knockout loss streak. The knockout defeat was his fifth since joining the roster in 2017, and he set the UFC bantamweight record for the most losses due to strikes in divisional history.

Still Has the Glow: In a losing effort to Sodiq Yusuff, Alex Caceres appeared for the 26th time as a UFC fighter. With that many UFC bouts in the books, just 20 other fighters in company history have fought more times than “Bruce Leeroy.”

When He’s On, He’s On: Wrecking Karl Roberson with a body kick and a pair of punches, Khalil Rountree recorded the vicious knockout. As a pro, the Tiger Muay Thai student has earned 70% of his career wins inside the distance, with all of them coming by strikes and not tapout.

Khalil Fairtex: Rountree collected his 10th and 11th knockdowns against Roberson, tying Lyoto Machida for the third-most in UFC light heavyweight history. Only Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua (14 each) have landed more.

The Doberman Bites Back: Surviving a Terrance McKinney onslaught and coming back to put McKinney away with a knee and follow-up punches, Drew Dober notched his sixth knockout as a UFC lightweight. This puts him two shy of the record holder that is Dustin Poirier, while he ties B.J. Penn, Joe Lauzon and Donald Cerrone for the fourth-most at 155 pounds in the Octagon.

Wreck or Get Wrecked: Win or lose, McKinney has still never gone the distance as a pro across 16 fights. Each of his last seven outings have ended in the first round, with this Dober fight at 3:17 the latest in this run. “T.Wrecks” has reached the third round once in 2018, and also fought into Round 2 against Sean Woodson in 2019.

Fight a Wrestler: For the first time in an MMA career that began in 2015 and spans six fights, Alex Pereira went the distance. “Poatan” won a decision over Bruno Silva (#66304) after a hard-fought battle.

De-Fletched: After three rounds of action, Matthew Semelsberger beat A.J. Fletcher by unanimous decision. Coming into his promotional debut, Fletcher held an unbeaten record of 9-0.

All Day Aldrich: J.J. Aldrich handled Gillian Robertson to win by decision in their flyweight matchup. Every one of Aldrich’s seven UFC wins has come at the hands of the judges, tying her with three other fighters for the third-most decision victories in UFC women’s divisional history. Katlyn Chookagian holds the top spot with 10.

Leopard Paw Print on the Scorecards: Needing the full 15 minutes to get his hand raised, Javid Basharat advanced his spotless record to 12-0. By taking a decision over Trevin Jones, “The Snow Leopard” won for the first time on the scorecards.

A Leeching Head-and-Arm: Damon Jackson landed his 15th career submission by tapping Kamuela Kirk with an arm-triangle choke. Submissions now account for exactly 75% of the wins for “The Leech.”

Fear the Bounceback: In the second round, Miranda Maverick tapped Sabina Mazo with a rear-naked choke to end a two-fight skid, which recently included a unanimous decision defeat. Every time “Fear the” Maverick has dropped a fight on all three scorecards, she has won her next outing by submission – this has happened in 2018, 2019 and now in 2022.

Hard to Call Lungiambula “Champion” : Coming back after taking a beating for three minutes, Cody Brundage submitted Dalcha Lungiambula with a guillotine choke. As a pro, the Factory X fighter now celebrates a finish rate of 86%, with an equal number of submissions and knockouts to his credit.

Once a Ninja, Always a Ninja: In just over two minutes, the 42-year-old Guido Cannetti put Kris Moutinho away with punches. “Ninja” has earned 78% of his career wins by stoppage, and all of those finishes have come in the opening frame.

More like Murdakanov: To start off the card, Azamat Murzakanov lamped Tafon Nchukwi with a flying knee in the third round after arguably losing the first two rounds. The Russian lifted his perfect record to 11-0, while elevating his finish rate to 82%.

Big Men Can’t Jump: The flying knee finish recorded by Murzakanov is just the third in UFC light heavyweight history. The first two came from James Irvin and Johnny Walker at the expenses of Terry Martin and Misha Cirkunov, respectively.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC Fight Night 203, Roberson had never been knocked out (13 fights), Silva had never lost on the scorecards (28 fights) and Nchukwi had never been finished (seven fights).

The Eminem Curse is For Real: McKinney made the unfortunate choice of selecting “Lose Yourself” by Eminem ahead of his clash with Dober, and he lost by knockout. As a walkout song, “Lose Yourself” has one of the lowest win percentages (.318) of any tune picked over 20 times.

Roots: For both of his walks to the Octagon, Pereira has chosen “Itsari” by Brazilian metal band Sepultura, and he has won both times. He is now the only fighter in company history to use a Sepultura song more than once and win on multiple occasions.

Welcome to Dollywood: Striding out to the cage accompanied by Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” Brundage subsequently picked up a win. As a result, he is the first fighter in recorded UFC walkout music history to prevail after using Dolly Parton as his walkout artist.