This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
Now that UFC 203 has come and gone, let's take a look back from a statistical perspective. The following is a by-the-numbers recap that highlights the stats and milestones that stood out on the main card.
Stipe Miocic continues to flaunt his power
Miocic continues to display his power in the Octagon. Over his last three fights, he has been scoring knockouts for every 21.67 significant strikes landed, and every two minutes and 43 seconds in the Octagon. For his career, Miocic has landed 12 knockouts in 16 fights. Eight of those knockouts have come in the first round, and his average fight time in knockout victories is four minutes and 48 seconds.
Alistair Overeem seemed content to literally run away from his opponent early in the fight. Perhaps he understands his own inability to handle power shots. In his combined MMA and kickboxing career, he has suffered 19 defeats. Of those 19 defeats, he has been knocked out 13 times.
Fabricio Werdum gives Travis Browne déjà vu
Werdum and Browne have now fought eight full rounds in the UFC. Their second go-around was virtually identical from a striking statistics perspective. In their first fight back in 2014, Werdum landed 61 percent of his significant strikes and landed 4.84 per minute. In the second fight, he landed 5.6 significant strikes per minute at a 59 percent clip. Browne was held to 2.40 significant strikes per minute in the first fight and 2.46 in the second.
Browne's accuracy fell off a cliff after the first round. This was almost certainly assisted by the gruesome finger injury he sustained early in the fight. After landing 40 percent of his significant strikes in round one, his accuracy fell to 26 percent in round two and 19 percent in the final frame.
Mickey Gall utterly dominates CM Punk
Gall's dominance jumps off the stat sheet. While CM Punk landed zero significant strikes, takedowns, or submission attempts, Gall landed 20 significant strikes at a 62 percent rate and finished the fight via submission a little over two minutes in.
Gall's StrikeScore, a stat that measures offensive and defensive striking efficiency, also illustrates his superiority. For the fight, he earned an 8100 StrikeScore, which is the sixth highest score of the year in the UFC.
Jimmie Rivera forces Urijah Faber to set new personal worst
In four UFC fights, Rivera has outlanded his opponents 210 to 138. He is currently landing 4.52 significant strikes per minute, while absorbing only 2.97. That differential (1.55) is good enough for fifth best among ranked bantamweights and ahead of champion Dominick Cruz.
Faber registered his lowest striking accuracy of his UFC career, 19 percent. His previous low in the promotion was his last fight with Dominick Cruz, in which he registered a mark of 21 percent. "The California Kid" has never been a very accurate striker. In his 15-fight UFC career, he has landed under 50 percent of his significant strikes eight times. However, his accuracy still seems to be trending downward. Faber's average striking accuracy for his last five fights is only 35 percent, and he has emerged with just a 2-3 record.
Jessica Andrade appears to have found a home at strawweight
Andrade has always been a busy striker. In the UFC, she has landed 6.45 significant strikes per minute, which is good enough for fifth best in the modern era. In her two fights since dropping down to strawweight, she has landed 10.90 significant strikes per minute. Against Joanne Calderwood, Andrade picked up only her second UFC submission victory and her first since 2014.
The news was not all terrible for Calderwood. Despite falling in the first round, she now qualifies for UFC records per FightMetric, as she has completed the minimum of five fights. She has landed 6.92 significant strikes per minute, which is second behind only Nikita Krylov (6.94) in the modern era.
