This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
Despite losing the main event at the last minute, UFC 213 still featured several interesting bouts. In the new main event, Robert Whittaker defeated Yoel Romero to become the new interim middleweight champion. From a DraftKings perspective, there were plenty of high scores. The highest possible score was 630 with a team composed of Aleksei Oleinik, Brian Camozzi, Belal Muhammad, Rob Font, Cody Stamann and Trevin Giles. The following is a by-the-numbers recap that highlights the stats and milestones that stood out on the main card, with stats courtesy of FightMetric.com.
Robert Whittaker surges back against Yoel Romero
After dropping the first two rounds, Whittaker stormed back to take the last three and the decision. He ended up outlanding Romero 74 to 48 on significant strikes. However, his most impressive metric was his takedown defense. He stopped 14 of Romero's 18 takedown attempts. Prior to this fight, Romero had only missed six in a fight.
Whittaker finished with 70 DraftKings points. His defensive wrestling does not come across in the score. His next fight against middleweight champion Michael Bisping will likely be a standup fight; he is likely to put up a high score with or without a finish.
Alistair Overeem escapes with decision over Fabricio Werdum
Overeem landed 21 significant strikes in a 15 minute fight and won the decision. All three judges awarded him the first round, in which he landed only five significant strikes. If there was ever a case for a 10-10 round, it was the first round of this fight. Werdum had the chance to finish the fight late in the third round, but he opted instead to go for the takedown, which likely cost him.
Despite winning, Overeem (40.5) ended up with fewer DraftKings points than Werdum (42.5). This rarely happens and goes to show just how undeserving of a win he was on Saturday night.
Curtis Blaydes does just enough against Daniel Omielanczuk
This was meant to be a showcase fight for Blaydes. There are very few young heavyweights in the UFC, and an impressive win here would have moved him up in the division. Instead, he failed to score takedowns and looked almost entirely lost. He landed 72 significant strikes, but he failed on all 13 of his takedown attempts. The takedowns will not always be there. He needs to polish up the other aspects of his game, so he is not simply pushing his opponent into the cage and hoping for the best.
In terms of DFS, Blaydes finished with 66 DraftKings points, which had to be a disappointment for players. He came into this fight as high as a -750 favorite, and he had the highest pre-fight price at $9,500.
Anthony Pettis flexes his striking game against Jim Miller
It is easy to say that Pettis looked like his old self against Miller. He defended 75 percent of Miller's takedown attempts and outlanded his opponent 80 to 48 in terms of significant strikes. On the other hand, Miller fought mostly at Pettis' range and played into his hands. This is not meant to take anything away from the win, but Pettis will face tougher tests in the lightweight division.
Pettis finished with 90 DraftKings point, which is respectable. However, on a night filled with finishes, it was only the sixth best for the night.
Rob Font blows out Douglas Silva de Andrade
Font dominated this fight from start to finish. He ended up outlanding Silva de Andrade 70 to 28 in terms of significant strikes. He also had the edge on the ground, as he landed a pair of takedowns and earned three submission attempts including the fight finisher.
Font had the fourth highest DraftKings score of the night at 121. He earned points for landing 70 significant strikes, two takedowns and two passes as well as the second-round finish bonus.
