Welcome to the latest biggest UFC event in the entire history of time.
That’s not true, of course. It will be very difficult for UFC 168 to bypass the fabled UFC 100 event in terms of sheer monetary power; I wouldn’t be surprised to see the event go over 1 million pay-per-view buys, but 1.65 million (the alleged number UFC 100 pulled in)? Nonsense.
But that’s okay. What we’re looking at here is still one of the biggest rematches in UFC history and certainly the biggest pay-per-view event of 2013. It’s a fitting way to close out a year of exciting fights. You’ve got the main event rematch with Anderson Silva trying to avenge the first loss of his UFC career against the young champion who desperately wants to prove the first time around wasn’t the fluke it appeared to be.
You’ve got the most heated rivalry in women’s mixed martial arts, with the dominant champion taking on the opponent she already once beat. And on top of that, you’ve got a few more excellent stylistic fights that should lead to fireworks (knock on wood).
Today, we take a deep dive into the statistics behind the fights, provided by my good friend Reed Kuhn from Fightnomics. He’s the Bill James of mixed martial arts, combing and analyzing statistics and data to see if any trends can be spotted. Today, we’ll take a look at some of those statistical categories and try to figure out if they can give us any sort of betting advantage over our peers.
Let’s get started. Oh, and as per our new custom with these previews, be sure to look out for the Just For Fun and $5 Parlay on the final page.