Author: Trent Reinsmith

The real winners and losers from UFC 286: Edwards vs. Usman 3

The 15-fight UFC 286 fight card was a top-heavy event, with the most anticipated and meaningful fights in the co-main event and main event spots. Those matchups did not disappoint.

In the headlining bout, Leon Edwards answered any questions that may have been lingering about his late knockout win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278. In what might have been the finest performance of his lengthy UFC career, Edwards moved his unbeaten streak to 12 straight with a majority decision win over the last man to beat him – Usman on the early prelims of UFC on FOX 17 in 2015.

In the co-main event, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev put on a lightweight scrap worthy of the “Fight of the Night” bonus the two competitors earned and then some. The victory put the 34-year-old Gaethje back on the path toward another shot at the UFC lightweight crown while serving as an education for the 30-year-old Fizeiv.

Before the two headlining bouts, Gunnar Nelson scored his UFC welterweight record seventh career submission win, stopping Bryan Barberena late in the first round.

Read on for the winners and losers of UFC 286, which took place at 02 Arena in London, England. The main card streamed on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and prelims on ESPN+.

Winners

Leon Edwards: Leon Edwards looked like a different fighter at UFC 286 – a better fight – perhaps the best version we have ever seen of him.

In his trilogy fight opposite Kamaru Usman, Edwards’ confidence seemed higher, his striking output was more than double that of his UFC 278 matchup opposite Usman, his takedown defense was more robust, his ability to get back to his feet and not get controlled on the mat was better, his striking defense was higher. In every respect, besides losing a point for grabbing the fence, Edwards showed improvement over his welterweight title-winning victory at UFC 278.

Any lingering doubts about Edwards being lucky in August — and those arguments have always been BS — were silenced on Saturday night when referee Herb Dean raised Edwards’ hand in victory in London. Even if Edwards had ended up retaining his UFC crown with a draw because of the point deduction, it would have been clear that he was the superior fighter on Saturday.

Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev: This was a fantastic fight. Rafael Fiziev’s speed and bodywork carried him through the first half of the battle, while Gaethje’s ability to absorb punishment early and then adjust to fighting behind the jab in the second half of the contest was enough to give him the fight on the scorecards.

Gaethje’s output and landing rate in the third round sealed his victory. He landed 53 of 87 his significant strike attempts for a landing rate of 60 percent during those five minutes. That increase came compliments of his jab and his ability to exploit Fiziev slowing down and his tendency to keep his head on the center line.

Like with many Justin Gaethje fights, this one was memorable, and a rematch at some point would be fine in my book.

Gunnar Nelson: Gunnar Nelson exploited the suspect takedown defense of Bryan Barberena at UFC 286 and it only took him one takedown to set up the eventual armbar that finished the fight at 4:51 of the first round.

The submission win was Nelson’s first since he stopped Alex Oliveira in 2018. Despite that gap between submission victories, Nelson’s stoppage on Saturday gave him seven UFC welterweight submission wins – the most in the division’s history. Entering UFC 286, Nelson was tied with Demian Maia and Chris Lytle.

Jennifer Maia: Jennifer Maia had a good game plan for her flyweight bout opposite Casey O’Neill. Maia allowed O’Neill to dictate the pace and location of the fight and then used her forward motion against her, countering well and exploiting O’Neill’s tendency to leave her head on line. The win put Maia on a two-fight winning streak following a two-fight losing skid in early 2022.

Marvin Vettori: Marvin Vettori’s output and accuracy earned him the win over Roman Dolidze. That will allow him to keep his spot in the top five of the UFC middleweight rankings.

I don’t believe Vettori will hold UFC gold, but he has established himself as a gatekeeper to the top three of the division and that’s not nothing.

Jack Shore: This was a good matchup for Jack Shore in his first fight at 145 pounds after moving up from bantamweight because while Marwan Amirkhani has some good wrestling skills, he doesn’t have a bottomless gas tank and that allowed Shore to get the submission in the second round.

Now that Shore has a featherweight camp under his belt, he should dial things in better for his second bout at 145 pounds because he had a rough go of things in the first stanza.

Am I sold on Shore at 145? No, but I’d rather see a fighter avoid the dangers and consequences of weight-cutting if it makes them more comfortable.

Yanal Ashmoz: The 27-year-old Yanal Ashmoz had himself an impressive UFC debut at UFC 286. His foe, Sam Patterson, who was a -265 favorite over the +225 Ashmoz, landed two significant strikes before getting blasted to the mat with a left hook. Following that strike, Ashmoz teed off with a flurry of ground strikes that put Patterson out 75 seconds into the lightweight scrap.

Muhammad Mokaev: Muhammad Mokaev has mat skills. We know that. We don’t know what he’ll do against an opponent who can stop his takedowns and force him into a striking battle on the feet for a full 15 minutes. That’s a worry because heading into UFC 286, no ranked UFC fighter landed fewer significant strikes per minute than Mokaev’s 1.15.

Mokaev gets points for fighting his fight, working through a nasty submission attempt and then securing the tap, but the jury is out on the upside of the 22-year-old flyweight.

Lerone Murphy vs. Gabriel Santos: This was an excellent featherweight scrap to end the early prelims. Lerone Murphy got the win, remained unbeaten and moved his record to 12-0-1. However, I was more impressed with the underdog in the contest, Gabriel Santos.

The 26-year-old Santos agreed to face Murphy on short notice at UFC 286. The Brazilian fighter put on an excellent showing. He was aggressive on his feet, slick on the mat and showed no octagon jitters. Santos might have lost his first career fight on Saturday, but he is someone to keep an eye on at 145 pounds.

Jake Hadley: Jake Hadley targeted Malcolm Gordon’s body on Saturday and two solid shots to the body were all it took for him to get his second straight UFC win. The first body blow Hadley landed came in a little high on the left side of Gordon, but the second one was a direct shot to the liver. That blow ended Gordon’s night 61 seconds into the catchweight bout. Speaking of catchweight, Hadley took 30 percent of Gordon’s pay after Gordon came in at 129.5 pounds for the scheduled flyweight scrap.

Joanna Wood: Joanna Wood went from fighting in a co-main event in March 2022 to competing on the early prelims of UFC 286. The UFC vet — she’s been with the promotion since 2014 — picked up a meaningful win on Saturday with a decision win over Luana Carolina. The victory ended a three-fight losing skid for the 37-year-old.

Veronica Hardy: In her first fight in over three years, Veronica Hardy showed no signs of cage rust in getting a clear unanimous decision victory over the heavily favored (-400) Juliana Miller.

Hardy’s movement and positioning on the feet were much better than her opponents, allowing her to connect on most of her strikes — she landed a whopping 80 percent of her significant strike attempts!

If there was one knock against Hardy in this matchup, it was her awareness of submission attempts and defense of those techniques.

Losers

UFC 286 viewers and UFC welterweight fighters not named Colby Covington: The fact that the UFC seemed focused on shoving Colby Covington down the throats of its viewers to convince them that a man who is 1-1 since November 2021 — and whose only win came against the ghost of Jorge Masvidal in March 2022 — is a legitimate welterweight title contender was heavy-handed and obvious.

Covington deserves his No. 2 ranking in the official UFC welterweight rankings about as much as he deserves the next shot at Edwards’ belt, which is to say, not at all. He hasn’t been in a non-title fight against an opponent coming off a win since he faced Rafael dos Anjos in 2018!

I won’t say Covington is a lousy fighter. He’s not. I would call him a great fighter, but he’s been out of action for over a year while other welterweight competitors have been active and working toward getting a title shot. So the right thing to do would be to have Covington get a win under his belt and allow another challenger their shot at Edwards. After that? Revisit the situation and see where the division stands.

Will that happen? I very much doubt it.

Kamaru Usman: Kamaru Usman did not fight poorly against Leon Edwards at UFC 286, it was more that he didn’t make the adjustments and improvements that Edwards made ahead of Saturday night.

Usman’s accomplishments before his two recent losses to Edwards should not be forgotten in a sport that eats its own. Remember, not long ago, Usman was discussed in the same breath as Georges St-Pierre as an all-time UFC welterweight great.

Roman Dolidze: Roman Dolidze’s style might have cost him the decision against Marvin Vettori. Had he been more active and employed more straight punches rather than so many hooks and overhands, the judges may have given him the nod against Vettori.

UFC 286 should serve as a learning experience for Dolidze, the top of the middleweight division tends not to succumb to pure power strikes. It will be interesting to see the adjustments Dolidze makes when he returns to the octagon.

Marwan Amirkhani: Marwan Amirkhani dropped to 1-5 since October 2020 with his loss to Jack Shore at UFC 286. His three most recent losses came via stoppage in the second round and his only win was a first-round sub. Judging by social media, Amirkhani’s second-round collapse on Saturday was the expected outcome of this contest.

UFC matchmakers: If a UFC fighter is knocking on the door of the top 10, like Muhammad Mokaev is, perhaps give him a fight against competition with UFC experience. That did not happen at UFC 286.

Michael Bisping: Once again, the UFC commentary team called out the UFC stat keepers for blowing a call — and once again, they were wrong. At UFC 286, Michael Bisping was sure that Gabriel Santos should have received credit for an armbar attempt even though he never got Lerone Murphy’s arm extended to lock in the technique. For a submission to be logged by the team that does stats for the UFC, the submission technique must threaten the limb (in this case). So the fact that Murphy prevented Santos from extending his arm means it was not a submission attempt.

The UFC commentary team needs to understand the stats they are tasked with reporting on, but that seems too much to ask of them in 2023.

Christian Leroy Duncan: The former Cage Warriors middleweight champ looked confident and relaxed in his UFC debut. Sadly, that fight was cut short when his opponent suffered a knee injury that left him unable to continue just 48 seconds into their 185-bout.

Bummer.

Daniel Cormier: During his post-fight interview with Christian Leroy Duncan, UFC commentator Christian Leroy Duncan if he thought his leg kicks were at all responsible for the knee injury his opponent, Dusko Todorovic suffered. The problem with that is that Todorovic’s right leg was injured and all of Duncan’s kicks landed to his foe’s left stem.

Jai Herbert: Some UFC fighters get favorable matchups from the UFC, Jai Herbert, who joined the UFC after winning and defending the Cage Warriors lightweight title, has not been one of those fighters. At UFC 286, he was once again (four out of five career UFC fights) the underdog on fight night opposite ?udovít Klein.

Unfortunately for Herbert, who fought very well and should have had his hand raised in victory, he cost himself a second straight UFC victory with two low blows in the third round.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission told Bloody Elbow it has no records of the UFC or Dana White reaching out to overturn Jones’ 2009 DQ loss.

UFC president Dana White has been voicing his frustrations with the only loss on Jon Jones’ record since at least 2012. So much so that over the last few years, he’s even started talking about having the disqualification overturned. After White reiterated his claim that he’s actively tried to overturn the loss heading into Jon Jones’ title fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, Bloody Elbow decided to take a look at exactly what kind of lobbying efforts have been made.

As far as we can see, there haven’t been any. At least not through officially recorded channels.

On December 5, 2009, a 9-0 Jones entered the Octagon to face the 7-2 Matt Hamill in the co-main event of the Ultimate Fighter Season 10 Finale fight card. Jones was just 22 at the time, and 3-0 in the UFC and riding as a comfortable -265 favorite over the 33-year-old Hamill, who entered the bout as the +225 underdog. The referee for the contest was Steve Mazzagatti, who, according to Tapology, first refereed for the UFC in 2003.

Jones took the fight to the ground with 2:26 left in the opening round and quickly moved to full mount, where he began teeing off with a relentless array of strikes. After a minute of ground and pound from mount, Jones threw the elbow strikes that cost him the fight.

On the broadcast, Mazzagatti can be here to say, “That’s an illegal elbow, Jon,” before he moved in to pause the action. UFC commentator Joe Rogan immediately said, “No, you can’t do 12-to-6. The up to down elbow from 12 o’clock to six o’clock is illegal.”

While Rogan was commenting on the strikes, Mazzagatti took a point from Jones. The referee then waved off the fight as Hamill, with blood pooling in both his eye sockets, reached for his left shoulder.”

Jones didn’t realize he had lost the bout until Bruce Buffer announced, “Due to intentional elbows, there’s been a disqualification of Jonny ‘Bones’ Jones.”

At the time, Nevada State executive director Keith Kizer said the commission used instant replay for the first time in its history. According to Kizer, the replay showed the elbows landed directly to Hamill’s eye and because the illegal blow was part of the sequence that ended the fight, the DQ ruling was handed down.

In 2010, following Jones’ TKO win over Brandon Vera, White said of the Jones vs. Hamill fight call, “It shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened that way. He shouldn’t have a loss, so it’s unfortunate.”

“It was a downward elbow, you take a point,” White added. “Hamill couldn’t continue because his shoulder was messed up. It had nothing to do with the elbow.”

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A 21-year-old remains hospitalized after collapsing during a March 4 MMA event in Evansville, IN.

Isaiah Abels, a 21-year-old amateur MMA fighter collapsed in the cage during a recent Southern Indiana Combat Production fight card at The Coliseum in downtown Evansville, IN, on March 4.

According to 44 News, Abels collapsed to his knees during the second round of the fight. On-site medical staff administered CPR to the unconscious fighter for several minutes before he was transported to a local hospital in Evansville via ambulance.

A few days after Abels collapsed in the cage, a fundraiser was established for his medical care. According to that page, the young fighter went into cardiac arrest during what was his third amateur MMA bout.

A March 8 update to that page reported that an MRI showed brain damage due to a lack of oxygen for three to five minutes. On March 10, doctors inserted a tracheotomy tube into Abels’ throat and a feeding tube into his stomach to prepare him for transfer to a long-term care facility. As of March 14, Abels was showing some signs of recovery, while waiting for a bed to open up for long-term care.

2023 being what it is, the family also issued a statement addressing the fighter’s COVID-19 vaccination status, and potential conspiracy theories surrounding it in a post on Facebook.

People assuming Isaiah is vaccinated are wrong. He didn’t receive the shot. He is a healthy fighter doing 2 a day practices. Traveling and training with the best fighters and coaches in Indiana. Not to mention his balls are bigger than the people for simply stepping into the cage. Most of you will never experience the intensity of a fight. Let alone experience being punched in the face.

Some people were asking honestly and some people just wanted to be “right”. I’m sorry for people who genuinely asked, but for the others who are focused on arguing about a vaccine can argue their points somewhere else. Isaiah is not vaccinated.

You can put your minds to rest as the people who actually love and support Isaiah will continue to motivate him.

The Southern Indiana Combat Production fight promotion issued a statement of their own as well.

We thank everyone for showing your support through this whole situation.

First, we want to wish a speedy recovery to Isaiah Abels in hopes that he can regain all strength and abilities as quick as possible. To him and his family, we will be keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers.

Next, we want to thank the cage side doctors and first responders who worked briskly to provide care to Isaiah. You are greatly appreciated.

To our fans, we thank you for attending the event last night, in person or by ppv. Please hold all ticket stubs and receipts, and stay tuned for more information. We want to thank all who were in attendance last night for the overwhelming support shown to our fighters and your understanding and patience in the matter. Please continue to keep Isaiah and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you

SICP Family

A running tally of important stats for all UFC events in 2023

On Saturday, Davey Grant joined a short list of fighters who have scored an inverted triangle submission under the UFC banner. Before Grant won his UFC Vegas 71 fight opposite Raphael Assuncao via that technique, only three other UFC competitors had scored submissions in that manner: Jordan Leavitt, Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Cole Miller.

Miller was the first UFC fighter to submit his opponent via inverted triangle, stopping Dan Lauzon at UFC 108 in January 2010. The next inverted triangle submission on a UFC card came in October 2014, when Aubin-Mercier stopped Jake Lindsay at UFC Fight Night 54. Leavitt ended a seven-plus year drought of inverted triangle submissions on UFC fight cards in December 2021 when he submitted Matt Sayles at UFC Vegas 45.

Miller, Aubin-Mercier and Grant received fight-night bonuses awards for their rare submission wins.

UFC Vegas 71 also featured a new promotional record. In the evening’s main event, Merab Dvalishvili set a new UFC record with 49 takedown attempts. Dvalishvili defeated former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan by unanimous decision. The victory moved Dvalishvili to the No. 1 spot in the official UFC bantamweight rankings.

UFC Vegas 71 streamed on ESPN+.

Below, we look at all the significant UFC stats for 2023.

Total Fights: 98

Title Fights: 6

Unanimous Decisions: 32

Split Decisions: 7

Majority Decisions: 2

Majority Draws: 2

KOs/TKOs: 25

Submissions: 30

Types of Finishes

Submissions

• Rear Naked Choke: 15
• Guillotine Choke After Drop to Guard: 2
• Arm Triangle from Half Guard: 2
• Triangle Choke from Bottom Guard: 2
• Guillotine Choke on Ground: 1
• Guillotine Choke from Bottom Guard: 1
• Kneebar on Ground: 1
• Arm Triangle from Mount: 1
• Arm Triangle on Ground: 1
• Armbar from Side Control: 1
• Triangle Armbar from Bottom Guard: 1
• Guillotine Choke From Half Guard: 1
• Inverted Triangle From Bottom Side Control: 1

Knockouts and Technical Knockouts

• Punch to Head at Distance: 6
• Punches to Head at Distance: 3
• Elbows to Head from Mount: 2
• Doctor Stoppage: 2
• Punches to Head in Clinch: 2
• Punches to Head on Ground: 2
• Flying Knee to Head: 1
• Kick to Body at Distance: 1
• Knees to Body at Distance: 1
• Knees to Head in Clinch: 1
• Punches to Head from Back Control: 1
• Punches to Head from Guard: 1
• Punches to Body at Distance: 1
• Punches to Head from Corner Stoppage: 1

Fights by Weight Division

• Heavyweight: 9
• Light heavyweight: 11
• Middleweight: 9
• Welterweight: 10
• Lightweight: 15
• Featherweight: 9
• Women’s Featherweight: 1
• Bantamweight: 13
• Catchweight: 2
• Women’s bantamweight: 2
• Flyweight: 8
• Women’s Flyweight: 7
• Women’s strawweight: 2

UFC Stat Totals in 2023

• Total Knockdowns Landed: 31
• Total Submission Attempts: 71
• Total Reversals: 33
• Total Significant Strikes Attempted: 16,764
• Total Significant Strikes Landed: 11,903
• Total Significant Head Strikes Attempted: 12,642
• Total Significant Head Strikes Landed: 4,986
• Total Significant Body Strikes Attempted: 2,524
• Total Significant Body Strikes Landed: 1,909
• Total Significant Leg Strikes Attempted: 1,598
• Total Significant Leg Strikes Landed: 1,324
• Total Significant Distance Strikes Attempted: 14,572
• Total Significant Distance Strikes Landed: 6,542
• Total Significant Clinch Strikes Attempted: 1,370
• Total Significant Clinch Strikes Landed: 1,028
• Total Significant Ground Strikes Attempted: 822
• Total Significant Ground Strikes Landed: 640
• Total Strikes Attempted: 21,071
• Total Strikes Landed: 11,903
• Total Takedowns Attempted: 641
• Total Takedowns Landed: 227

Memorable Fight Stats in 2023

Shortest Five-Round Fight: Jon Jones submits Ciryl Gane at 2:04 of Round 1 via guillotine choke at UFC 285.

Shortest Three-Round Fight: Rinya Nakamura KOs Toshiomi Kazama at 0:33 of Round 1 via punch to head at distance at UFC Vegas 68.

Latest Finish in a Three-Round Fight: Davey Grant submits Raphael Assuncao via inverted triangle from bottom side control at 4:43 of Round 3 at UFC Vegas 71.

Most Takedowns Landed: Loik Radzhabov lands 11 takedowns on 21 attempts vs. Esteban Ribovics at UFC 285 and Merab Dvalishvili lands 11 takedowns on 49 attempts vs. Petr Yan (five round fight) at UFC Vegas 71.

Most Submission Attempts: HyunSung Park three submission attempts against SeungGuk Choi, Jimmy Crute three submission attempts against Alonzo Menifield, Clayton Carpenter with three submission attempts vs. Juancamilo Ronderos and Joe Solecki with three submission attempts vs. Carl Deaton.

Most Knockdowns Landed: Rinya Nakamura scores two knockdowns on Toshiomi Kazama , Alonzo Menifield scores two knockdowns on Jimmy Crute and Trevor Peek with two knockdowns vs. Erick Gonzalez.

Most Significant Strikes Landed in a Three-Round Fight: Jessica Andrade lands 231 of 369 significant strike attempts in unanimous decision win over Lauren Murphy.

Shutouts: Serghei Spivac prevents Derrick Lewis from landing any strikes or takedowns during their UFC Vegas 68 main event fight.

New UFC records in 2023

Jon Jones became the eighth double-champion in UFC history.

Jon Jones broke his own UFC record with 15 title fight wins.

Shavkat Rakhmonov became the first UFC welterweight to open his run with the promotion with five straight finishes.

Jamahal Hill lands 232 significant strikes in a UFC light heavyweight fight for a new UFC LHW single-fight record. Hill defeated Glover Teixeira to by unanimous decision to win the UFC light heavyweight title.

Jessica Andrade lands 231 significant strikes in a UFC women’s flyweight fight for a new UFC women’s flyweight record. Andrade defeated Lauren Murphy via unanimous decision.

Jessica Andrade tied Amanda Nunes for most wins in women’s UFC history with her 15th victory with the promotion.

Jim Miller participated in his 41st fight in the UFC. Andrei Arlovski is second to Miller with 39 UFC bouts.

With his one submission attempt vs. Alexander Hernandez, Jim Miller has the most submission attempts in UFC history with 47. Charles Oliveira is second with 40 submission attempts.

Jim Miller has 38 fights in the UFC lightweight division. Three other fighters: Clay Guida, Gleison Tibau and Joe Lauzon are tied for second with 27 fighters each.

Jim Miller has 6:18:59 of UFC lightweight fight time. Clay Guida is second with 5:10:50.

Jim Miller has 44 submission attempts in UFC lightweight fights. Joe Lauzon is second with 29.

Erin Blanchfield has a control time percentage of 55.4 percent in UFC flyweight fights. Taila Santos is second with 46.3 percent.

Erin Blanchfield has a top position percentage of 48.6 percent in UFC flyweight fights. Gillian Robertson is second at 41.9 percent.

Erin Blanchfield averages 1.57 submissions per 15 minutes of UFC women’s flyweight fight time. Taila Santos is second at 1.5.

Mayra Bueno Silva secures first kneebar submission in UFC women’s bantamweight history.

Stats via UFC Stats

USADA has issued a statement to Bloody Elbow about Dan Hooker’s recent claims.

Last week, UFC lightweight Dan Hooker grumbled about unfair treatment from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after his unsubstantiated claims that Islam Makhachev had used an IV to rehydrate following weigh-ins for his UFC 284 lightweight title fight opposite Hooker’s teammate Alexander Volkanovski.

“I’ve had two or three knocks on my door at 6 a.m. by USADA, blood and piss over the last couple of weeks,” Hooker told the All-Star. “You think that’s a coincidence? That ain’t no coincidence, baby. On the same hand, you think I’m just gonna shut up and bite my tongue?”

“Brother, I’ve almost had 50 knocks at my door, and that’s a stranger coming into your house, asking you to pull down your pants and stare at your dick. You think I’m gonna sit silent while other guys are skirting the rules when I got some stranger knocking on my door, asking me to pull my pants down? I ain’t playing this game.”

Not long after Makhachev defeated Volkanovski by unanimous decision to retain his 155-pound title in Perth, Australia, Hooker tweeted, “Dumb cunt thinks he can fly to Australia hire a nurse to give him an I.V. and we won’t find out. Cheating dog.”

Hooker later added that “He doesn’t cheat, he doesn’t win.” Hooker later clarified who he was referring to by posting, “Islam is a cheat.”

In response to Hooker’s accusations, Western Australia Combat Sport Commission Chair Bob Kucera told MMA Fighting, “The Commission has no conclusive evidence that any athlete at the UFC 284 event held at RAC Arena has breached WADA or the commission’s policies,” Kucera wrote. “The Commission has not received a complaint relating to any athlete at the UFC 284 event held at RAC Arena. The Commission invites anyone with any relevant information to contact us.”

Further, outside of talking about Makhachev using an IV to rehydrate, Hooker has offered no proof that Makhachev did so.

As for Hooker’s claims that he has seen increased testing from USADA, before the latest update to USADA’s online test history on March 13, the overseer of the UFC’s drug testing program had not taken a sample from Hooker in 2023. The March 13 update to USADA test history showed the organization took two samples from Hooker between the March 2 and March 13 testing history update.

In a statement to Bloody Elbow, USADA wrote, “We are sorry Dan feels this way, but it is absolutely not the case. He’s only been tested once this year, as reflected on our website.”

As per the USADA website, “The number of samples USADA has collected is typically not the number of test sessions an individual athlete has been selected for during a given period, as multiple samples (e.g., blood, urine, Dried Blood Spot) are often collected during a test session. Thus, the number of samples collected typically does not equate to the number of times an athlete has been selected for an in-competition or out-of-competition test session with a USADA Doping Control Officer.”

Hooker’s sample count in 2022 was 11.

Merab Dvalishvili set a UFC record in takedown attempts and a personal best for significant strikes landed vs. Petr Yan.

Merab Dvalishvili’s game plan for his UFC Vegas 71 main event bout opposite former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan was clear before the first frame even ended. Dvalishvili wanted to use pressure via attempted takedowns and strikes to prevent Yan from getting the time and space he needed to mount any offense of his own.

With the Team Serra-Longo talent’s bottomless gas tank, the plan was a smashing success. Not only did Dvalishvili’s approach earn him a one-sided unanimous decision win, it also gave him a UFC record in takedown attempts and a career-best in significant strikes landed in a single fight.

Heading into Saturday’s card, Dvalishvili’s UFC career best in significant strikes landed was 73 on 128 attempts in a three-round matchup opposite Gustavo Lopez—on the prelims of the UFC Vegas 2 fight card. Against Yan, ‘The Machine’ connected on 147 of 338 strike attempts over five rounds. As for his UFC record in takedown attempts, Dvalishvili went 11 for 49 in that department, crushing the previous high of 33, which Cain Velasquez set against Junior dos Santos at UFC 155.

Saturday’s fight card was a showcase for the bantamweight division. Not only did Dvalishvili put on a career-best performance, but Jonathan Martinez scored a meaningful win over Said Nurmagomedov, Mario Bautista extended his winning streak to four straight with a submission of Guido Cannetti, Davey Grant scored a rare inverted triangle submission of Raphael Assuncao and Victor Henry picked up a win over Tony Gravely.

Below, we take a deep dive into the stats from Saturday’s UFC event. UFC Vegas 71 took place at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. The entire fight card streamed on ESPN+.

• Total Fights: 13
• Unanimous Decisions: 6
• Split Decision: 1
• KOs/TKOs: 1
• Submissions: 5

Fights by Weight Division

• Heavyweight: 2
• Light heavyweight: 1
• Middleweight: 1
• Welterweight: 1
• Bantamweight: 5
• Flyweight: 1
• Women’s flyweight: 1
• Catchweight: 1

• Total Knockdowns Landed: 3
• Total Submission Attempts: 14
• Total Reversals: 12
• Total Significant Strikes Attempted: 2,183
• Total Significant Strikes Landed: 1,160
• Total Significant Head Strikes Attempted: 1,585
• Total Significant Head Strikes Landed: 674
• Total Significant Body Strikes Attempted: 387
• Total Significant Body Strikes Landed: 300
• Total Significant Leg Strikes Attempted: 211
• Total Significant Leg Strikes Landed: 186
• Total Significant Distance Strikes Attempted: 1,840
• Total Significant Distance Strikes Landed: 883
• Total Significant Clinch Strikes Attempted: 244
• Total Significant Clinch Strikes Landed: 198
• Total Significant Ground Strikes Attempted: 99
• Total Significant Ground Strikes Landed: 79

• Total Strikes Attempted: 2,861
• Total Strikes Landed: 1,771
• Total Takedowns Attempted: 59
• Total Takedowns Landed: 175

• Shortest Three-Round Fight: Alexander Volkov TKOs Alexander Romanov at 2:16 of Round 1 via punches to head on the ground.
• Latest Finish in a Three-Round Fight: Davey Grant submits Raphael Assuncao via inverted triangle from bottom side control.
• Most Takedowns Landed: Merab Dvalishvili lands 11 takedowns on 49 attempts vs. Petr Yan (five round fight).
• Most Submission Attempts: Four fighters with two submission attempts: Nikita Krylov, Said Nurmagomedov, Josh Fremd and Victor Henry.
• Most Knockdowns Landed: Three fighters with one knockdown: Karl WIlliams, Davey Grant and Bruno Silva.
• Most Significant Strikes Landed in a Three-Round Fight: Victor Henry lands 154 significant strikes on 244 attempts vs. Tony Gravely.

New UFC records from UFC Vegas 71

• Merab Dvalishvili set a UFC single fight record with 49 takedown attempts.

Stats via UFC Stats