This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
With a victory in the main event of UFC on Fox 26, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos officially announced himself as a contender in the welterweight division. The rest of the main card was composed of an action fight and two first-round finishes. 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 655 for a team composed to Nordine Taleb, Chad Laprise, Glover Teixeira, Santiago Ponzinibbio, Josh Emmett and Rafael Dos Anjos.
Rafael Dos Anjos put on an amazing striking display against Robbie Lawler
This was truly a masterful performance from Dos Anjos. He consistently threw more strikes and landed at a higher percentage than Lawler. Over the course of the fight, he landed 59 percent of his significant strikes while avoiding 60 percent of Lawler's attempts. The Brazilian attempted more, landed more and finished with better accuracy in each of the five rounds.
In addition to staking a place as a contender in the welterweight division, Dos Anjos also finished with the highest DraftKings score of the night. He finished with 129 points, thanks mostly to his 172 landed significant strikes, but he also scored points with a pair of takedowns and a pass on the ground.
Josh Emmett wasted no time against Ricardo Lamas
Emmett only needed to land 10 significant strikes to finish Lamas. He was clearly looking to land a huge power shot since he missed 74 percent of his attempts. Prior to this fight, he had never stopped anyone with strikes. However, he was due after scoring four knockdowns in a decision win over Felipe Arantes a few months ago.
Emmett earned players 105 DraftKings points. He did not have very much time to put up any stats, but he landed a knockdown and took home the 90-point first-round finish bonus.
Santiago Ponzinibbio outworked Mike Perry in rounds two and three
This was a very even contest. Both fighters came forward with a lot of power and landed big shots. However, Ponzinibbio set himself apart with his attacks to the leg and volume. He landed 14 of his 15 significant strike attempts to the leg, and he attempted 64 more significant strikes during the three-round fight (200 to 136). Perry actually attempted more significant strikes in the first round, but Ponzinibbio turned up the volume and attempted 16.4 per minute in the final two rounds.
Glover Teixeira worked over Misha Cirkunov on the ground
This bout was a tale of two different fights. On the feet, Cirkunov outlanded Teixeira 21 to 2 on significant strikes, and he was clearly winning the fight. However, Teixeira scored a takedown and took over. On the ground, he landed 11 significant strikes and forced the referee to stop the bout.
Teixeira had the third-highest DraftKings score of the night with 107.5 He earned points with 12 significant strikes, a takedown and two passes on the ground.
