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.
* * *
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 7,325
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 662
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship set sail for Paris, where it
once more planted its flag and the locals ended up with fistfuls of
treasure. As all but one French fighter prevailed against a
foreigner in front of a raucous Parisian crowd, it was practically
a party from start to finish.
UFC Fight Night 226 featured a heavyweight sniper king, the
return of a man that took many years away to train and a debuting
145er that plans on becoming king of the pirates.
Don’t Be Fooled by Appearances: When not including the match
pitting two countrymen against one another, French fighters
performed extremely well at night’s end. The local combatants won
six of their seven outings against foreign adversaries, with the
lone losing fighter
Zarah
Fairn.
What is Gane, is Gane! In eight minutes and 44 seconds,
Ciryl Gane
connected on
Sergey
Spivak with
109
significant strikes while absorbing back about 10% of that
amount. With a current total of 856, just six men in the history of
the UFC’s heavyweight division
have landed
more.
Andrei
Arlovski’s 1,453 stand far above the pack.
Power Isn’t Determined by Your Size: As a pro, France’s Gane has
now authored 75% of his wins inside the distance. He now sports
half of his victories via knockout, but has only earned one in the
first round.
They Will All Watch as I Change the World: After three rounds of
combat,
Manon
Fiorot emerged the victor over
Rose
Namajunas. This marks her sixth win as a UFC flyweight, tying
her with four other women including
Erin
Blanchfield for the sixth-most in divisional history.
No One Is Born into This World to Be Alone: Despite receiving one
of the loudest pops of the night, UFC Fight Night 226 marked the
first time that the Nice-born Fiorot had ever competed in MMA in
front of a home-country crowd.
Let’s Live for Another Moment: Late into the second round,
Benoit St.
Denis drummed out
Thiago
Moises with strikes. “God of War” retained his 100% finish rate
with the stoppage, having rattled off four straight finishes in the
Octagon since 2022.
Little by Little the Tides are Changing: While
Volkan
Oezdemir did record his
first
knockdown since 2019 by dropping
Bogdan
Guskov, he settled for notching just his second submission win
as a pro. “No Time” previous landed a kimura on
Mamadou
Cisse back in 2012.
Don’t Fall for Their Tricks: In back-to-back finishes,
Morgan
Charriere and
William
Gomis put away
Manolo
Zecchini and
Yanis
Ghemmouri, respectively, with body shots. This marks the first
UFC event where consecutive bouts officially ended courtesy of
strikes to the body.
I’m Going to Be King of the Pirates: Charriere saw his overall
finish rate move up to 74% by putting Zecchini away in Round 1.
“The Last Pirate” has recorded five of his last six wins by
knockout, including two via strikes to the midsection.
People’s Dreams…Have No End: After a win over
Leandro
Issa in 2016,
Taylor
Lapilus left the UFC. The 31-year-old returned to the promotion
to pick up a decision win over
Caolan
Loughran. The last time he competed in the Octagon, seven of
the other 21 fighters on the billing had yet to make their pro
debuts, while Namajunas was the only other fighter on the UFC
roster at the time.
I Don’t Want to Conquer Anything:
Nora
Cornolle needed all three rounds to pick up a
contentious decision win over
Joselyne
Edwards. It marked the first time the French muay thai expat
had needed to involve the judges to get her hand raised.
I Want to Live: Since joining the promotion in 2021, Edwards has
competed seven times. She has heard the final bell in all seven
appearances.
He May Possess the Greatest Talent of All: To boost his growing
record to 11-0,
Farid
Basharat strangled
Kleydson
Rodrigues in the first round with an arm-triangle choke. Even
with a majority of his wins coming by stoppage, “Ferocious Farid”
has notched just three finishes in the opening frame.
It’s War…People Die: In the curtain-jerker, Fairn ended up as the
lone competitor from L’Hexagone to come up short. The Frenchwoman
lost a clear-cut decision to
Jacqueline
Cavalcanti, and as a result suffered her fourth loss with the
promotion. Her four defeats at 140 pounds or higher are the most of
any female fighter in UFC history.
Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC Fight Night 226, Guskov (16
fights) and Rodrigues (10 fights) had never been submitted,
Ghemmouri had never been stopped with strikes (13 fights) and
Loughran had never been defeated (eight fights).
The World Has Too Many Heroes: Both Gomis and Charriere also walked
to the cage with tracks from French rapper Booba playing behind
them. Gomis selected
“DKR,” while
Charriere picked
“Move Lang.” The
two strikers emerged victorious, scoring one knockout apiece.
It Needs a Monster: Other than a one-off use of
“Salvation” for
Shane
Howell back in 2015, all of the previous uses of The
Cranberries as a walkout artist had been for the song
“Zombie.”
Loughran attempted to break that trend by attempting to have
“Dreams”
play in the arena, only for audio to malfunction and the crowd to
shower him with boos.