UFC Fight Night 30 has come and gone, so let’s take a look at who made history Saturday night in Manchester, England, with the help of our friends at FightMetric.
*Sarah Kaufman’s UFC women’s bantamweight record of 87 significant strikes landed in a single fight just got crushed. Jessica Andrade, in search of her first UFC victory, poured on an historic amount of strikes en route to a dominant decision win over Rosi Sexton Saturday night in Manchester. Andrade landed 206 significant strikes. Her striking output not only shattered her division’s record, it came close to shattering all records. Andrade’s 206 significant strikes are the second-most ever landed in a UFC bout, ranking just behind Nate Diaz’s UFC record of 238 significant strikes landed against Donald Cerrone at UFC 141. Diaz and Andrade are the only fighters in UFC history to break the 200 significant strike barrier in a fight. Andrade particularly poured it on in the second round. Her 91 significant strikes in that frame are the second-most ever landed in a single round, just three behind Tim Sylvia’s 94-strike output against Wesley “Cabbage” Correira at UFC 39. Andrade landed 60 percent of her 344 attempts, the fifth-most accurate striking performance for a fighter attempting 200-plus significant strikes (there have been 165 such performances in the UFC).
* Jimy Hettes continues to stake his claim as one of the best ground fighters in the UFC’s featherweight division. With three takedowns landed against Robert Whiteford, Hettes passed Nik Lentz for the most takedowns in the UFC’s featherweight division with 21, and the fourth-most in UFC/WEC featherweight history. Manny Gamburyan and Mike Brown are currently tied for the most featherweight takedowns with 25.
* Another fight featuring Alessio Sakara ended quickly Saturday night. Going into his bout with Nico Musoke, Sakara’s average fight time of 5:11 was the second-shortest among active fighters with five UFC bouts. It now sits at 5:02, just three seconds longer than Erick Silva’s average of 4:58, lowest among active fighters. Of the twenty fighters with the shortest average fight times in UFC history, only five have winning records: Shane Carwin, Brian Foster, Gabriel Gonzaga, Frank Mir, and Ken Shamrock. Sakara has appeared in 15 UFC bouts and only two have gone the distance.
* There aren’t many fighters in the lighter weight classes hitting opponents harder than John Lineker these days. Lineker earned his third consecutive knockout victory against Phil Harris and knocked Harris down three times in the process. It’s the second time Lineker has earned three knockdowns in a UFC fight, previously dropping Azamat Gashimov three times at UFC on FX 8. John Lineker is just the second fighter in UFC history to earn three knockdowns in a fight on two occasions. He joins Anderson Silva, who accomplished the feat against Rich Franklin at UFC 77 and Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.
* Lyoto Machida made quick, and rather light, work of Mark Munoz in Saturday night’s main event. Machida earned a head kick knockout at 3:10 of the first round, which Machida’s quickest knockout in the UFC and his second UFC knockout stemming from a kick to the head. He’s just one of five fighters in UFC history to earn two head kick knockouts. The others: Anthony Johnson, Yves Edwards, Paul Taylor, and Vitor Belfort. Machida earned his 12th knockdown of an opponent, passing Junior Dos Santos for fourth-most in UFC history. Ahead of him: Anderson Silva (17), Chuck Liddell (14), and Melvin Guillard (13).
* Machida and Munoz combined for just 13 total strike attempts, and only Machida had any that landed with five. Mark Munoz became just the fifth fighter in a UFC main event to not land a single strike. Others include Evan Tanner at UFC 30, Matt Hughes at UFC 45, Sam Stout at the TUF 3 Finale, and James Irvin at Fight Night 14.