Fight Stat Wrap: UFC Oklahoma City Recap

Fight Stat Wrap: UFC Oklahoma City Recap

This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.

UFC Fight Night 112 ended in controversy, as the main event was almost certainly stopped early. However, the show still did feature several impressive finishes and performances. The top DraftKings lineup composed of Kevin Lee, Tim Boetsch, Felice Herrig, Dominick Reyes, Jeremy Kimball and Jared Gordon scored 681.5 points, so there were plenty of points being thrown around. 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.

Kevin Lee dominates from the top against Michael Chiesa

Most of the talk coming out of this main event will be about referee Mario Yamasaki stepping in a few moments too soon. That should not take away from Lee, who looked fantastic. On the feet, the striking battle was mostly even, Lee landed three strikes while Chiesa landed two. However, once the fight hit the ground, Lee turned it out and outlanded Chiesa 19-2 before locking on the fight ending rear-naked choke. "The Motown Phenom" is at his best when he gets takedowns and does damage from the top, and that was on full display here.

Chiesa, on the other hand, will need to find a way to score more with his strikes. For his UFC career, he has a negative striking differential on a per minute basis. He eats 2.52 per minute, while landing only 2.18. Over his last five fights, he has been outlanded 142 to 117 on significant strikes. Chiesa has founds ways to be successful without relying on his striking, but if he found ways to land, it would open up the rest of his offense even more.

Lee finished with 109 DraftKings points, which was the third-best score on the night. At a relatively low costs, $8,000, he netted players points at a rate of $75.23 per point, which was fourth best on the card.

Tim Boetsch takes out Johny Hendricks in a one-sided fight

Boetsch came into this fight as a relatively large underdog despite Hendricks' recent struggles. Even before the knockout blow, Boetsch was using his superior size and reach to beat up the former welterweight champion. In the first round, he outlanded Hendricks 29-to-9 on significant strikes. In the second round, Hendricks managed to only land one strike before Boetsch finished the fight.

When Hendricks was at his best, he was a volume striker who mixed in his wrestling to throw off his opponents. In his last four fights against fighters not named Hector Lombard, Hendricks has been outlanded 239 to 105 on significant strikes. In his welterweight title winning performance against Robbie Lawler in 2014, he landed 158 significant strikes in that single bout.

Boetsch earned players 110.5 DraftKings point, which was the second highest score of the night behind only Jared Gordon. His point total could have been even higher, but FightMetric did not award Boetsch a knockdown for the finish.

Felice Herrig shows off improved ground game against Justin Kish

Herrig had perhaps the best grappling performance of her UFC career. After starting her MMA career as a kickboxing convert, she had taken rather quickly to the wrestling side of MMA. In this fight, he showed a developed top game that really help her dominate the fight. She finished with 15 passes and nearly finished the fight via submission. Herrig has worked hard to diversify her offense, and this will pay dividends against some of the better strikers in the division.

Those passes really helped bump up Herrig's DraftKings score. She earned 108.5 points for the win with 45 of those points coming directly from passes on the ground.

Dominick Reyes wastes no time against Joachim Christensen

One day after Bellator mega prospect Aaron Pico failed to deliver, Reyes put on a show in his UFC debut. He landed 13 strikes, knocked down his opponent and finished the fight all in 29 seconds. Christensen is probably not long for the UFC world, but Reyes showed that he more than belongs in the suddenly shallow light heavyweight division. From a DraftKings perspective, "The Devastator" might have won too quickly. He collected the 90-point first-round finish bonus but since he only needed 13 strikes to do it, he finished with 106.5 points total.

Tim Means makes Alex Garcia miss all night

Garcia does hit with a lot of power, but he needs to overhaul his overall striking style. His style is simply not conducive to winning fights against properly trained strikers. In his three losses against Means, Sean Strickland and Neil Magny, Garcia has been outlanded 187 to 60. In those fights, he landed only 23 perfect of his significant strikes. He will need to go back to the drawing board, because landing with power is meaningless when you are missing nearly 77 percent of your significant strike attempts.

Means did a great job keeping this fight on the feet. He stoned all five of Garcia's takedown attempts. In the striking battle he was much more accurate, 36 percent to 21 percent, and he outworked Garcia. He attempted 174 significant strikes compared to only 151 by Garcia.

This was not a very active fight, and that comes across in the DraftKings score. Means ended up with 62 points, which was the lowest score for any winner at the event.

Dennis Siver bests B.J. Penn with dominant third round

With the exception of the knockdown in round two, Siver was in the driver's seat from start to finish. The first two rounds were relatively close, but then Siver pulled away in the third. Siver outlanded Penn 56 to 14 on significant strikes and almost certainly deserved a 10-8 score.

Since defeating Matt Hughes in 2010, Penn has lost six-straight fights. In those fights, he has been outlanded 589 to 198 and been knocked out twice.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Mann
Richard is a statistical MMA analyst who regularly appears on ESPN MMA and InterMatWrestle.
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