Fight Facts: UFC on Fox 29

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: 4605
Total number of UFC Events: 435

Sometimes, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship bills a bout as a potential barnburner, it does not live up to expectations. In the case of UFC on Fox 29, it lived up to the hype and then some, with a phenomenal main event that catapulted itself right to the top of the “2018 Fight of the Year” list. Not to be outshined, fighters throughout the night put on thrilling performances -- an incredibly rare submission, some devastating knockouts and a submission magician on a mission for the belt.

Festival of Face Punching: UFC on Fox 29 featured an incredible 14 fights, the most on a card since UFC 2 in 1994, which held 15 fights in a massive 16-man, one-night tournament.

That Fox Pacing: Showcasing 14 fights spanning about seven hours of fight coverage, UFC on Fox 29 dwarfed the total broadcast time of UFC 2’s 15-fight card of just over two hours and 41 minutes.

Four on the Floor: The bout between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, which ended in the fourth round, became only the 25th fight in UFC history to stop in round 4. Along with the fourth round TKO of Fabricio Werdum by Alexander Volkov one month prior, 2018 became the first year to feature multiple fourth round stoppages since 2015. Poirier became only the fifth fighter in UFC history to both win and lose a bout in the fourth round, joining B.J. Penn, “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, Derrick Lewis and Renan Barao.

Immune to Boring Fights: After his thrilling battle with Poirier, Gaethje became the third fighter in UFC history to start his career off by winning three consecutive “Fight of the Night” bonuses, following in the footsteps of Yoshihiro Akiyama and Frank Camacho. All three went 1-2 in their respective bonus-winning battles.

Go for the Eyes, Boo: Landing two accidental eye pokes, Gaethje was deducted a point by referee Herb Dean for his second infraction. Gaethje became the first fighter to lose a point in a main event fight since Brandon Vera lost a point for an illegal upkick against Jon Jones at UFC on Versus 1 in 2010.

Condition Red: Dropping his fight against Alex Oliveira by guillotine choke, former interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit has now lost four straight fights dating back to his controversial split decision loss to Robbie Lawler for the welterweight championship. Including his welterweight unification bout against Georges St. Pierre, Condit has fared poorly, going 2-7 in that span of five and a half years.

Submission over Position: Antonio Carlos Jr.’s rear-naked choke submission of Tim Boetsch was his fifth RNC performed inside the Octagon, the most in UFC middleweight history. The victory ties him for the third most RNC wins all-time with Michael Chiesa, behind Demian Maia with 6 and Kenny Florian with 7.

Puttin’ on the Jitz: Tim Boetsch’s submission loss to Carlos Jr. was the fifth time he has been submitted in his UFC tenure. The loss added Boetsch to a small list of fighters who have been submitted at least five times inside the Octagon, joining Anthony Johnson, Jeremy Horn, Josh Burkman, Matt Brown, and David Abbott. Melvin Guillard and Ryan Jensen were each submitted six times inside the UFC, the most in company history, although one of Jensen’s submission losses was when he tapped to strikes against Mark Munoz.

Three-peat: Carlos Jr.’s rear-naked choke was his third consecutive RNC victory, joining Kevin Lee, Mark Bocek, and Mickey Gall as the only fighters to ever win three straight fights all by RNC.

Enter Sandaman: By knocking out a debuting Ricky Rainey in the second frame, Muslim Salikhov’s last eleven wins have come by stoppage inside of two rounds. His bout with Rainey was only the third time he has fought beyond the first stanza in 16 bouts, and now half of Salikhov’s 14 wins have come by KO.

Forgot What It Felt Like: Brad Tavares’s TKO over Krzysztof Jotko was the first time the Hawaiian had stopped an opponent since he knocked out Phil Baroni at UFC 125 in 2011, a span of 13 fights including 9 decision wins.

Whoa-moplata: Adam Wieczorek became just the second fighter in UFC history to successfully pull off an omoplata submission. It was first performed by Ben Saunders against Chris Heatherly at UFC Fight Night 49 in 2014.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into this event, Israel Adesanya had never fought beyond the second round in his pro career (12 fights). Arjan Singh Bhullar had never been defeated (7 fights), and the UFC had never held an event in the city of Glendale, Arizona (434 events).

Undeniable Dilemma: Although accompanied by “Triad” by Tool, Carlos Condit was submitted by Alex Oliveira, making the record for fighters using Tool songs dropped to a recorded 1-5, with four stoppage losses.

Anything But: Making his UFC debut by walking out to “Victory” by Puff Daddy featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, Rainey lost by knockout. Fighters to walk out to “Victory” have not performed well inside the Octagon, going a recorded 5-8-1 (1 NC), including five stoppage losses and a DQ.

Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. He put together a UFC fight result and entrance music database to better study MMA and has been covering the sport since he started studying the Eminem Curse in 2012, writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.