Alexandre
Pantoja needed every bit of five rounds to get past
Steve
Erceg.
Ultimately, the reigning flyweight champion’s ability to mix up his
attacks proved to be the difference, as he took a hard-fought
unanimous decision win over Erceg in the
UFC
301 headliner at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday
night. It’s the second successful flyweight title defense for “The
Cannibal,” who was able to win in front of his home fans against a
game opponent. Erceg, who was fighting for a championship less than
a year into his
Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure, likely raised his stock
in defeat — and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him fighting for
gold again in the near future.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 301, with statistics courtesy
of UFCStats.com.
12: Flyweight victories in UFC competition for Pantoja. That’s
third most in the history of the division behind only
Demetrious
Johnson (13) and
Joseph
Benavidez (13).
9: Takedowns landed by Pantoja in 19 attempts, a UFC career high
for the flyweight champion. After landing 11 takedowns in his first
12 UFC appearances, “The Cannibal” has landed 23 takedowns in his
last three fights. Erceg, meanwhile, landed one of six takedown
attempts.
8:15: Total control time for Pantoja, which included a key 2:46 in
the decisive fifth frame. Erceg logged just 32 seconds of control
time in defeat.
125: Significant strikes landed by Pantoja. By comparison, Erceg
landed 111. Pantoja outlanded his opponent 30 to 17 in Round 1, 34
to 22 in Round 3 and 15 to 13 in Round 5. Erceg, meanwhile,
outlanded Pantoja 28 to 23 in Round 2 and 31 to 23 in Round 4.
Pantoja also held a 143-to-129 edge in total strikes landed.
87: Significant head strikes for Erceg. Pantoja landed 75
significant strikes to the head.
33: Significant body strikes for Pantoja. Erceg, meanwhile, landed
16 significant strikes to the body. Pantoja also held significant
strike advantages in to the legs (17-8), in the clinch (14-3) and
on the ground (15 to 1).
77: Significant strikes landed by UFC Hall of Famer
Jose Aldo in a
unanimous decision triumph against
Jonathan
Martinez in the bantamweight co-main event. By comparison,
Martinez landed 52. Aldo outlanded his foe 17 to 15 in Round 1, 30
to 14 in Round 2 and 30 to 23 in Round 3. It was Aldo’s first fight
since fallling to
Merab
Dvalishvili at UFC 278 on Aug. 20, 2022. Aldo also held a
101-to-80 edge in total strikes landed.
26: Significant body strikes landed by Aldo. Martinez, meanwhile,
landed nine.
10: Significant leg strikes for Aldo. Martinez had just seven. In
his previous four UFC victories, Martinez outlanded his opponents
29 to 1, 18 to 8, 32 to 7 and 29 to 3 in significant leg
strikes.
3,745: Days since Aldo last landed a takedown in UFC competition,
when he secured two in a featherweight title defense against
Ricardo
Lamas at UFC 169 on Feb. 1, 2014. Aldo landed his first
takedown since then when he grounded Martinez in the third
frame.
35: Finishes among 37 professional victories for
Anthony
Smith, who submitted the previously unbeaten
Vitor
Petrino in the opening stanza of their light heavyweight
bout.
8: UFC finishes at light heavyweight for Smith, tying him with
Mauricio
Rua and
Paul Craig
for the fifth most in the history of the division behind
Glover
Teixeira (13),
Ovince St.
Preux (11),
Jon Jones (10)
and
Chuck
Liddell (nine).
1: Career submission via guillotine choke for Smith. “Lionheart,”
who has 15 career triumphs by way of submission overall, earned his
first victory via that maneuver against Petrino.
8: Consecutive victories for
Michel
Pereira, who has compiled his streak at both welterweight and
middleweight. That ties him with
Movsar
Evloev for the third-longest winning streak in the promotion,
regardless of weight class. Only
Islam
Makhachev (13) and
Merab
Dvalishvili (10) have longer winning streaks. Pereira submitted
Ihor
Potieria with a guillotine choke just 54 seconds into Round 1
of their 185-pound bout on Saturday.
3:01: Total time of Pereira’s three middleweight appearances,
first-round stoppages of Potieria (0:54),
Andre
Petroski (1:06) and
Michal
Oleksiejczuk (1:01).
6: Consecutive victories for
Caio
Borralho, tying him with
Brendan
Allen for the second-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s
middleweight division behind reigning champ
Dricus Du
Plessis (seven). Borralho defeated
Paul Craig
via second-round knockout in a featured contest at UFC 301.
1-4: Record for Craig since July 2022. “Bearjew” has been finished
in three of those four defeats.
5: Consecutive finishes for
Joanderson
Brito, the second-longest active streak in the UFC behind only
welterweight contender
Shavkat
Rakhmonov (six). Brito busted
Jack Shore’s
leg open with low kicks, which resulted in their fight being waved
off by the cageside doctor at the 3:35 mark of Round 2.
22: Significant leg strikes landed by Brito. The Brazilian landed a
total of 30 significant strikes overall against Shore.
16: Age difference, in years, between
Karolina
Kowalkiewicz (38) and
Iasmin
Lucindo (22) in their strawweight clash. The 5,939-day age gap
is the largest for a women’s bout in UFC history. The previous
largest gap of 5,715 days occurred in a matchup between
Maycee
Barber and
Roxanne
Modafferi at UFC 246. Lucindo outlanded Kowalkiewicz by an
83-to-42 count in significant strikes en route to a unanimous
decision triumph.
5: Takedowns landed in 17 attempts by Myktybek Orolabi in a
unanimous decision triumph over
Elves
Brener at lightweight. Brener, meanwhile, landed three of six
takedowns in defeat. Orolbai enjoyed 7:12 of control time to 2:55
for his opponent.
4: Consecutive victories for
Drakkar
Klose, tying him with
Mike Davis
and
Arman
Tsarukyan for the fourth-longest active winning streak in the
UFC’s lightweight division. Klose took a three-round verdict over
Joaquim
Silva in a preliminary affair on Saturday night. Only
Islam
Makhachev (12),
Renato
Carneiro (five) and
Paddy
Pimblett (five) have longer winning streaks at 155 pounds.
10: KO/TKO victories among 10 professional triumphs for
Mauricio
Ruffy, who continued that trend with a first-round stoppage of
Jamie
Mullarkey in a preliminary lightweight bout.
6: KO/TKO defeats among seven career losses for Mullarkey. Four of
those have come in UFC competition.
111: Significant strikes landed by
Ismael
Bonfim in a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph over
Vinc Pichel
at lightweight. That’s the most significant strikes any opponent
has landed against PIchel during his 11-bout UFC career. Pichel
landed 61 significant strikes in defeat.
41: Age of Pichel, making him the oldest athlete on the UFC 301
card. Bonfim, his opponent, is 28 years old.
30: Significant strikes — including 12 to the legs — landed by
Alessando Costa in just 95 seconds of second-round action against
Kevin
Borjas. By comparison, Borjas landed just three significant
strikes in that same timeframe. Costa attacked with leg kicks to
immobilize his foe before finishing with ground-and-pound at the
1:35 mark of Round 2.