Fight Facts: UFC on ABC 5 ‘Emmett vs. Topuria’

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: 7,200
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 652

The Ultimate Fighting Championship played to its strengths by matching up a bunch of likely action fights and showing them off in Florida. While the event generally started slow, it built up into wild crescendo with high drama, terrific slugfests and an eye poke to end all eye pokes. UFC on ABC 5 featured an ultra-rare 10-7 scorecard, a submission specialist displaying his favorite move and a grinder who embraces the grind like few others.

Jaw Made of Sterner Stuff: For just the second time in his burgeoning career, Ilia Topuria heard the final bell. Topuria needed all five rounds to outwork Josh Emmett, and boosted his pro record to 14-0 while dropping his finish rate to 86%.

Big Hurdle Overcome: Over the course of 25 minutes, Topuria landed 152 significant strikes. This total is far higher than his previous five UFC fights combined (122).

A Judge Without a Cause: Judge Chris Lee awarded Topuria a 10-7 fourth frame due to his knockdown and near finish of Emmett. This marks the first official 10-7 scorecard in a UFC fight since Round 1 of Khamzat Chimaev vs. John Phillips in July 2020.

Should Have Gone to the Undercard: Both Topuria and Emmett found themselves $50k richer by earning “Fight of the Night” for their scrap. Topuria’s last three wins have all been accompanied by bonus money, while Emmett has claimed a FOTN check in three of his last five outings.

The Future Is Back on Track: Snapping a stretch of six straight decisions, Maycee Barber thrashed Amanda Ribas with punches and elbows. Her three knockouts as a flyweight trail just Valentina Shevchenko’s four in the women’s 125-pound leaderboard.

Libera Te Me: In 29 seconds, Justin Tafa vs. Austen Lane ended due to an accidental eye poke from Lane. The no contest via eye poke is the fifth inside the Octagon since 2020, accounting for more of these in-cage rulings than any other kind of foul stoppage.

New Team, No Problem: Towards the end of the second round, David Onama put Gabriel Santos away with one punch. The recent Factory X transfer has seen all 11 of his victories end inside the distance, with only one beyond the second frame.

Teammates on the Leaderboard: Brendan Allen snatched up a rear-naked choke to put Bruno Silva away in the opening frame. This marks his fifth submission at 185 pounds and his sixth in the UFC overall, putting him in a tie for second at middleweight. Gerald Meerschaert’s nine are far and above any other 185er.

Unorthodox Setup: Since his first UFC outing in 2019, Allen has locked up five rear-naked chokes. The four fighters with more are Renato Carneiro and Charles Oliveira (six each), Kenny Florian (seven) and Demian Maia (eight).

By Hook or By Grind: Claiming a split verdict over Philip Rowe, Neil Magny notched his 21st win on the UFC roster, extending his record in the welterweight division. Just five other combatants have more victories in the UFC than Magny.

Hard to Look Good Against Him: Magny’s decision win is his 14th since joining the league in 2013. He now holds two more than the next closest fighters of Andrei Arlovski, Rafael dos Anjos and Brad Tavares.

Magny Doing Magny Things: Getting off just 29 significant strikes in his 15-minute encounter with Rowe, Magny improved his welterweight total of 1,329. He sits five shy of divisional leader Kamaru Usman.

Not Rude to the Judges: After 15 minutes of combat, Randy Brown edged Wellington Turman to get the decision victory. “Rude Boy” has earned all of his past four wins by decision, accounting for two-thirds of all of his career triumphs on the scorecards.

Berserker Fist: Poland’s Mateusz Rebecki put Loik Radzhabov down with a punch in Round 2 to improve his win streak to 15 in a row. The fighter out of Berserker’s Team has seen 83% of his professional victories come before the final bell.

Baby Shark Swam: Tabatha Ricci scored an even 100 significant strikes on Gillian Robertson en route to a unanimous decision win. Every time Robertson has absorbed at least 40 sig strikes in a UFC fight, she has lost.

Checked Off the Cardio Box: Courtesy of a split decision, Joshua Van made his successful company debut by defeating Zhalgas Zhumagulov. Before this encounter, the Myanmar-born Van had never competed beyond 9:58 of a pro fight.

Took His Win and His Personal Best Too: In his UFC debut, Van connected with 120 significant strikes on Zhumagulov to get the nod on two of three scorecards. This total clocks in as the seventh-most in a UFC flyweight bout, and exceeds Zhumagulov’s 119 from 2022.

One Score Away: Zhumagulov has now lost three consecutive split decisions, putting him one shy of the company record for the most defeats on split cards. He, Jesse Ronson and Dennis Bermudez are the only three fighters in UFC history to lose three straight split decisions.

Peek Peaked: Coming in on late notice, Jose Mariscal beat Trevor Peek in a thriller. “Chepe” dragged Peek to deep waters, as Peek had never before left a fight in the hands of the judges.

Unfortunate: Upsetting short-notice replacement Cody Brundage, Sedriques Dumas earned his second decision win as a pro. He has not lost a fight that went beyond the second round.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ABC 5, Topuria had never competed beyond the third round (13 fights), Santos (11 fights) and Radzhabov (22 fights) had never been finished and Peek had never been defeated (nine fights).

I Want to Know Your Name: Rowe became the second recorded fighter in league history to select a song by Tevin Campbell. Picking “Can We Talk,” Rowe lost a tough decision. Previously, Juan Adams went with “I 2 I” and also came up short back in 2019.

Simple Pleasures: Ahead of his pairing with Van, Zhumagulov walked out to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin. He is the first fighter to select this musician or song in promotional history.

His Real Name’s Clarence: For both of his UFC outings, Jack Jenkins has emerged to the final rap battle from the film “8 Mile” performed by Eminem. He has won both of those matches, following a contentious decision win over Jamall Emmers. Jenkins remains the lone UFC fighter this year to prevail after selecting an Eminem track.