Fight Facts: UFC on ESPN 35 ‘Font vs. Vera’

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: 6,604
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 603

Ultimate Fighting Championship finished a three-show run at the UFC Apex with a fight card not massively relevant on paper, while still delivering with action when it counted. The most-anticipated bout shone as the brightest of the night, in which a contender emerged after the dust settled. UFC on ESPN 35 featured the biggest betting favorite in UFC history performing as such, a heavyweight record holder and sure-fire Hall of Famer defying Father Time once more and a dazzling striking total practically never seen in the Octagon.

That’s the Decision We Like to See: As the first Ecuadorian fighter to headline a UFC card, Marlon Vera beat Rob Font by decision after dropping Font three times throughout their fight. The finish rate of “Chito” fell to 79% with his performance, and two of his four career wins on the scorecards have come across his last three outings.

Highest Discrepancy for a Losing Fighter: Over the course of five wild rounds, Font officially landed 271 significant strikes. Even in a losing effort, he claims the third spot for the most landed by one fighter in a single match. Only Max Holloway’s 290 and 445 stand above him.

Holloway-ian Metrics: Combined, Vera and Font connected with 430 significant strikes after 25 minutes of combat. Their tally clocks in as the fourth-most in any UFC bout, behind Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez (437), Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 2 (449) and Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar (581).

Fight Any of Those Last Three Names: Vera dropped Font three times en route to his decision win, moving his total knockdown tally as a bantamweight to seven. Only five 135ers have landed more than him: Montel Jackson and Eddie Wineland (eight each), Cody Garbrandt and T.J. Dillashaw (nine each) and Petr Yan (10).

He Dun It Again: Pocketing a split decision over Jake Collier, Andrei Arlovski established himself as the winningest fighter in UFC history. This is a distinction he is currently tied with Jim Miller and Donald Cerrone, and the three men have all prevailed 23 times inside the Octagon.

No Sign of Slowing Down: By merely walking to the cage and letting it close behind him, Arlovski competed in his 38th UFC fight. This puts him at second-most in the history of the UFC, behind only Miller’s 39.

The Quintessential Heavyweight: Arlovski holds a slew of heavyweight records in which he expanded his lead by prevailing at UFC on ESPN 35. In divisional history, he celebrates the most fights (38), most wins (23), most victories by decision (12), most cage time (over six hours), highest significant strike quantity (1,427) and the largest total strike tally (1,722).

A Pit Bull Above Pitbulls: “The Pit Bull” finds himself on his long win streak of four straight since his run towards the belt from 2014 to 2015, when he returned to the roster. The last time he held a lengthier win streak than four came back in 2005, which included him winning the interim belt, then defending it when it transformed into the undisputed strap due to Frank Mir’s injury.

Brito Bomberman: In 41 seconds, Joanderson Brito earned his first UFC win by knocking Andre Fili’s block off. The Brazilian improved his finish rate to 85% with the win, and he now holds eight of his 13 career wins under the two-minute mark.

The KGD Will Wait For No One: With less than a minute left on the clock in the last round, Grant Dawson tapped Jared Gordon with a rear-naked choke. “KGD” has seen 16 of his 18 wins over his career end inside the distance, and he lifts his submission rate to 67%.

Damage is as Damage Does: As he faced Tristan Connelly at 145 pounds, Darren Elkins entered into his 24th featherweight fight. This breaks a tie with Holloway for the most in divisional history. He trails Holloway with win totals, with 16 to Holloway’s 18, but he is above the Hawaiian for decision victories with 11 compared to Holloway with eight.

Electrifying Elkins: As he grounded Connelly five times throughout their bout, Elkins became the first fighter in divisional history to surpass 50 takedowns landed. The longtime featherweight has secured 54 takedowns, which is substantially higher than the next active fighter of Fili at 32.

It Is What It Was: Going the distance for the sixth time in his last six fights, Krzysztof Jotko topped Gerald Meerschaert by unanimous verdict. With a low finish rate of 29%, the Polish fighter has only recorded one stoppage – a knockout of Tamdan McCrory in 2016 – since late 2012.

Never In Any Doubt: Lifting his spotless record to 16-0, Alexander Romanov thrashed Chase Sherman before landing a submission after about two minutes of combat. The Moldovan has finished 15 of those matches inside the distance, with 11 of his victories in the opening round.

Odds That Wide at Heavyweight? An incredible -2000 betting favorite, Romanov closed as the largest in company history against Sherman at +1000. He surpassed Ronda Rousey’s top line of -1700 ahead of her one-sided romp against Bethe Correia in 2015.

The Big Man Submission Returns: Across the history of the promotion, only six keylock submissions have ever succeeded inside the Octagon, following Romanov’s on Sherman. Four of those six occurred either at heavyweight or when the UFC did not utilize weight classes, while none has ever come from a fighter lighter than 184 pounds (Nick Catone, 2009).

Not Quite Like His Brother: Needing only 78 seconds to snare Daniel Lacerda in a kneebar, Francisco Figueiredo elevated his stoppage rate to 85% in victory. The kneebar for “Sniper” is the first in his weight category of men’s flyweight.

Kneebar Coming Back in Style: Both UFC on ESPN 35 and the previous event of UFC Fight Night 205 saw fights end via kneebar, making these back-to-back cards the first in company history to feature kneebars on consecutive weekends.

Gave Him a Gift: “Gifted” Gabriel Green pounded out Yohan Lainesse in the second round to bounce back from the first decision win of his career. The California native has finished 10 of 11 foes when triumphant, with nine of those coming within two rounds.

Mashed Mazany: Including two stints in the UFC, Gina Mazany has succumbed to strike stoppages four times. Shanna Young stopped her in Round 2 to register the fourth. Mazany has now been knocked out more times than any other female fighter in organizational history.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ESPN 35, Vera had never fought beyond the third round (26 fights), Gordon (22 fights) and Lacerda (13 fights) had never been submitted and Lainesse had never been defeated (eight fights).

Give Me Sanctuary, Please: For all seven of his UFC appearances, Dawson has selected his walkout track as “Hellfire,” as covered by Jonathan Young. This tune is famously known as villain song from the Disney animated film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Dawson has yet to taste defeat after walking out to this version of the song.

Time Stops When He’s On Top of You: Every one of Romanov’s UFC fights have featured entrance music of “Stop the Time” by Amatory, a metal band from St. Petersburg, Russia. “King Kong” has never needed the full 15 minutes to get his hand raised in any of those five victories.

Meet the Osbournes: With “I Don’t Wanna Stop” by Ozzy Osbourne playing in the UFC Apex, Young walked out to the cage and got the job done by knocking Mazany out. She is the first fighter since 2015 to pick a track from the legendary rocker, while lifting his catalogue’s win percentage to a feeble .250.