This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
Fans that were dedicated enough to wake up at 3:30 am EST on a holiday weekend were treated to a rather eventful UFC Fight Night 122 event. In the main event, Kelvin Gastelum picked up the biggest win of his career as he dispatched a former champion. The rest of the main card was an interesting mix of debuting prospects and veterans looking for another chance. 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.
For DraftKings, the highest possible score was 681 points for a team composed of Cyril Asker, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Song Kenan, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Alex Garcia and Li Jingliang. In the final fight on the undercard, Magomedsharipov put up the highest score the night. He earned 152 points for a decision victory due in large part to 10 passes and 11 takedowns.
Kelvin Gastelum scored quickest knockout of Michael Bisping
On Saturday, Gastelum became the third person to knockout Bisping in his entire career. He need only 14 significant strikes to accomplish the task, and the fight was over in less than three minutes. The other two men to finish Bisping with strikes, former champions Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson, needed 18 and 29 significant strikes respectively to score the finish. Plus, both of those finishes came in the second round. It is hard to say if the result is more due to Gastelum's improved striking game or Bisping's decline, but it is an impressive performance nonetheless. Prior to this fight, Gastelum had never earned a stoppage due to strikes in the UFC.
Gastelum had the third-quickest finish of the card. However, his 107 DraftKings points were tied for fourth on a night full of first-round finishes and high scores.
Li Jingliang continued his winning streak versus Zak Ottow
Jingliang has now won four fights in a row with three of those wins coming via knockout. During the stretch, he has landed 5.35 significant strikes per minute while absorbing only 2.58. Against, Ottow, Jingliang was even more active with his offensive striking. He landed 8.81 significant strikes per minute in the fight, which is the second-highest offensive output of his UFC career.
The first-round finish earned Jingliang the second-highest DraftKings score of the night. His 113 points was the highest on the main card and behind only Magomedsharipov for the event.
Wang Guan brutalized Alex Caceres in the first two rounds
One of the most shocking happenings to occur in Shanghai was the fact that judge Kon Papaioannou had a scorecard for Caceres. This fight was very one sided throughout the first two rounds. Guan outlanded his opponents 54 to 26 on significant strikes in the first two frames. Even though Caceres had a bit of a comeback in the final round, a scorecard for him is indefensible.
Guan came into this fight ranked as the No. 317 featherweight per Fight Matrix. After the victory over "Bruce Leroy," the Chinese fighter jumped up 222 spots to #95. The success of fighters like Guan on this card show how far along the Chinese MMA scene has come in a short time.
Even though the fight probably should have been stopped at the end of the first round, Guan was not able to score the finish. This negatively impacted his DraftKings score as he finished with only 78.5 points, which was the ninth-best score of the night.
Alex Garcia defeated Muslim Salikhov with virtually no striking
Garcia is by no means an active striker. For his UFC career, he has only landed two significant strikes per minute. Against Salikhov this deficiency was taken to the extremes, as Garcia only landed 0.72 significant strikes per minute. However, he was able to score the win anyway. He took advantage of Salikhov's weakness on the ground and won via submission thanks to three takedowns and three passes.
The lack of striking left Garcia with 97 DraftKings points. He scored for his six landed significant strikes, three takedowns, three passes and the second-round finish bonus.
