Say what you will about Conor McGregor, but you must admit one thing: He’s risen to semi-stardom in the UFC quicker than anyone in recent memory. The Irish featherweight has just two fights in the UFC—a knockout win over Marcus Brimage in his April debut and last week’s decision win over Max Holloway at Fight […]
Say what you will about Conor McGregor, but you must admit one thing: He’s risen to semi-stardom in the UFC quicker than anyone in recent memory. The Irish featherweight has just two fights in the UFC—a knockout win over Marcus Brimage in his April debut and last week’s decision win over Max Holloway at Fight […]
(Also temporary? Pettis’ time as a Cake Boss Intern.)
It is no understatement to say that the upcoming featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Jose Aldo has divided, confused, and outright angered many fans of the sport. It’s a fight that is all but guaranteed to wind up on your best-of-the-year list, sure, but it’s also Pettis’ first fight at featherweight, as well as Aldo’s second straight title defense against a guy who built his reputation in an entirely different weight class. It’s at this point that we’d normally reference Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones, the baffling randomness at which title shots are being handed out, the fragility of human life, etc. But we’re tired, you guys. Damn tired…*cries into shot glass* *drinks own tears*
And now, adding to the confusion is none other than Pettis himself, who recently stated in an interview with The NY Post that his drop to featherweight “isn’t permanent.” Uh….the fuck?
A lot of things led to my cutting down to 145. I was tired of waiting for a 155 pound title shot.
It’s not a permanent weight cut (to featherweight). But a striker like myself and Aldo, it doesn’t really matter what weight class it happens at. It’s going to be fireworks either way.
(Also temporary? Pettis’ time as a Cake Boss Intern.)
It is no understatement to say that the upcoming featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Jose Aldo has divided, confused, and outright angered many fans of the sport. It’s a fight that is all but guaranteed to wind up on your best-of-the-year list, sure, but it’s also Pettis’ first fight at featherweight, as well as Aldo’s second straight title defense against a guy who built his reputation in an entirely different weight class. It’s at this point that we’d normally reference Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones, the baffling randomness at which title shots are being handed out, the fragility of human life, etc. But we’re tired, you guys. Damn tired…*cries into shot glass* *drinks own tears*
And now, adding to the confusion is none other than Pettis himself, who recently stated in an interview with The NY Post that his drop to featherweight “isn’t permanent.” Uh….the fuck?
A lot of things led to my cutting down to 145. I was tired of waiting for a 155 pound title shot.
It’s not a permanent weight cut (to featherweight). But a striker like myself and Aldo, it doesn’t really matter what weight class it happens at. It’s going to be fireworks either way.
So to sum things up, we now have a natural lightweight with no plans of remaining at featherweight fighting for the featherweight title against the most dominant featherweight in MMA history, who will in turn receive a lightweight title shot should he beat the lightweight #1 contender in a featherweight title fight. Oh yes, and that lightweight/apparently featherweight #1 contender is also the last man to beat the current lightweight champ, who will instead face the winner of the upcoming fight between the #3 and #7 ranked lightweights. Who is the #2 ranked lightweight, you ask? That would be the guy currently fighting for the featherweight title.
(“Don’t worry, Leonard, if this doesn’t fix your aching back, it will probably just break it.” Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
Two featherweights who have long since punched their tickets to a title shot are set to face off at UFC 162. Of course, now that Jose Aldo is fighting #1 lightweight contender Anthony Pettis and receiving a lightweight title shot if he is successful, we should probably assume that both the winner and loser of this fight will be sitting in title shot purgatory for at least a few months. So hooray for that.
That being the case, we should still prepare for one epic clash when top featherweight contenders Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas meet at UFC 162, which transpires at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 6th.
We haven’t seen Jung in action since he submitted fellow top contender Dustin Poirier in a Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night, and Fight of the Year-earning performance back at UFC on FUEL 3 last May, as he was forced to undergo shoulder surgery shortly thereafter. Lamas, on the other hand, has been picking off contenders ever since entering the UFC. With victories over Cub Swanson, Hatsu Hioki, and most recently one-time title hopeful Erik Koch at UFC on Fox 6, it would be almost impossible to claim that Lamas hasn’t earned his shot should he best the South Korean.
Who do you like for this one, Potato Nation?
After the jump: Some highlights from Jung and Poirier’s FOTY scrap, as well as Lamas’ destruction of Koch.
(“Don’t worry, Leonard, if this doesn’t fix your aching back, it will probably just break it.” Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
Two featherweights who have long since punched their tickets to a title shot are set to face off at UFC 162. Of course, now that Jose Aldo is fighting #1 lightweight contender Anthony Pettis and receiving a lightweight title shot if he is successful, we should probably assume that both the winner and loser of this fight will be sitting in title shot purgatory for at least a few months. So hooray for that.
That being the case, we should still prepare for one epic clash when top featherweight contenders Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas meet at UFC 162, which transpires at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 6th.
We haven’t seen Jung in action since he submitted fellow top contender Dustin Poirier in a Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night, and Fight of the Year-earning performance back at UFC on FUEL 3 last May, as he was forced to undergo shoulder surgery shortly thereafter. Lamas, on the other hand, has been picking off contenders ever since entering the UFC. With victories over Cub Swanson, Hatsu Hioki, and most recently one-time title hopeful Erik Koch at UFC on Fox 6, it would be almost impossible to claim that Lamas hasn’t earned his shot should he best the South Korean.
Who do you like for this one, Potato Nation?
After the jump: Some highlights from Jung and Poirier’s FOTY scrap, as well as Lamas’ destruction of Koch.
UFC featherweight Cub Swanson added his name to the 145-pound division’s ever-growing list of rising contenders with his unanimous decision victory over Dustin Poirier at Saturday night’s UFC on Fuel 7. The exciting battle between Swanson and Poirier was a perfect showcase of how talented these featherweights are. And with the recent influx of former […]
UFC featherweight Cub Swanson added his name to the 145-pound division’s ever-growing list of rising contenders with his unanimous decision victory over Dustin Poirier at Saturday night’s UFC on Fuel 7. The exciting battle between Swanson and Poirier was a perfect showcase of how talented these featherweights are. And with the recent influx of former […]
If there’s one fighter in the UFC featherweight division that nobody seems to want to face these days, it’s former title contender Chad Mendes. The former NCAA All-American wrestler has struggled to find top opponents in his last few fights, not including the latest incident that saw former Ultimate Fighter finalist Manny Gamburyan drop out […]
If there’s one fighter in the UFC featherweight division that nobody seems to want to face these days, it’s former title contender Chad Mendes. The former NCAA All-American wrestler has struggled to find top opponents in his last few fights, not including the latest incident that saw former Ultimate Fighter finalist Manny Gamburyan drop out […]
Sniper Award: Cub Swanson has been on a roll lately and tops out as the division’s most accurate striker, landing 37% of his power head strike attempts. For perspective, that’s bordering on Anderson Silva-type accuracy, at least statistically. This has helped Swanson win three straight in the UFC, all by (T)KO, and pick up two straight Knockout of the Night bonuses.
Energizer Bunny Award: Southpaw Erik Koch has more than doubled the striking output of his opponents. But that wasn’t enough to stop the ground Hellbows from Ricardo Lamas on last Saturday’s FOX card. There’s no doubt about Koch’s skills, he’ll just have to wait longer to test them against the current champ.
Biggest Ball(s) Award: Andy Ogle may cry a lot when he’s away from home, but no one should doubt the size of his, ahem, heart. Though he dropped a split decision in his UFC debut against Akira Corassani, he managed to knock down the Swede despite landing only two solid strikes to the head. He’d better improve his accuracy and pull the trigger more often if he hopes to get past the similarly gun-shy yet powerful Josh Grispi at UFC on FUEL 7 next month. Other notable featherweights with knockdown power include Koch, Aldo, Dennis Siver and Dennis Bermudez.
(Click chart for full-size version. For previous Databombs, click here.)
Sniper Award: Cub Swanson has been on a roll lately and tops out as the division’s most accurate striker, landing 37% of his power head strike attempts. For perspective, that’s bordering on Anderson Silva-type accuracy, at least statistically. This has helped Swanson win three straight in the UFC, all by (T)KO, and pick up two straight Knockout of the Night bonuses.
Energizer Bunny Award: Southpaw Erik Koch has more than doubled the striking output of his opponents. But that wasn’t enough to stop the ground Hellbows from Ricardo Lamas on last Saturday’s FOX card. There’s no doubt about Koch’s skills, he’ll just have to wait longer to test them against the current champ.
Biggest Ball(s) Award: Andy Ogle may cry a lot when he’s away from home, but no one should doubt the size of his, ahem, heart. Though he dropped a split decision in his UFC debut against Akira Corassani, he managed to knock down the Swede despite landing only two solid strikes to the head. He’d better improve his accuracy and pull the trigger more often if he hopes to get past the similarly gun-shy yet powerful Josh Grispi at UFC on FUEL 7 next month. Other notable featherweights with knockdown power include Koch, Aldo, Dennis Siver and Dennis Bermudez.
The Losers
Swing and a Miss Award: Recent UFC debutant Yaotzin Meza failed to land a single power head strike on Chad Mendes during his two-minute KO loss at UFC on FX 6. Other guys also needing some accuracy improvement include Hacran Dias and Rani Yahya, who each miss nine times out of ten.
Smallest Ball(s): 22 of the 49 Featherweights shown here have yet to score a knockdown, but Nik Lentz and Nam Phan have failed to do so despite over two hours of total Octagon fight time each.
Starnes Award for Inaction: Josh “The Gentleman” Clopton threw a total of 33 standing strikes over three full rounds at the TUF 14 Finale against Steven Siler, who more than doubled Clopton’s output. That’s barely two strikes per minute. Clopton was heard politely saying, “no, after you!” before each exchange.
Also Noteworthy
According to the data, Jose Aldo matches pace with his opponents, but is more accurate, and has clear knockout power. Frankie Edgar*, however, doesn’t have the same accuracy or power, and is in fact below average for the division by those metrics. We’ll see how things play out this weekend at UFC 156 in what Dana White is billing as the first “Super Fight” of the year. Also coming up on February 16th, we’ll see two of the featherweight division’s best, Cub Swanson and Dustin Poirier, face off for a potential contender spot.
Next week we’ll look at the Bantamweights in time to see how Renan Barao and Michael McDonald stack up with the rest of the division. Any predictions on who will take the awards?
How the Analysis Works:
In order to understand standup striking performance, which is more multifaceted in MMA than it is in boxing, I need to boil down a few of the most important variables that determine success as a striker. These are fairly uncomplicated variables in isolation, but together they can summarize a fighter’s overall capabilities. Here, I’ve focused on three fundamental, offensive metrics:
Accuracy: I’ve used power head striking accuracy (as opposed to body or leg strikes, or jabs to the head), where the average for UFC Flyweights is about 25%. Certainly, great strikers can attack the body and legs, but the most likely way to end a fight by strikes is by aiming at the head. And in order to keep this comparison apples-to-apples, we can’t have a guy that throws a lot of high accuracy leg kicks skewing his accuracy stat. The accuracy of the power head strike is a great indicator of a fighter’s striking prowess, and there’s a wide range within a single division as we’ll see. This is the vertical axis, so more accurate fighters are higher in the graph.
Standup Striking Pace: Prior analysis reveals that outpacing your opponent is a key predictor of success, and certainly correlates with winning decisions as it reflects which fighter is dictating the pace of the fight. Here, I’ve used the total number of standup strikes thrown as a ratio to the same output from a fighter’s opponents. All strikes attempted from a standup position are counted, including body shots and leg kicks. This is the horizontal axis in the graph, and the average for the whole division must be 1, so fighters with superior pace appear further to the right.
Knockdown Rate: The objective of every strike thrown is to hurt your opponent, and knockdowns reflect a fighter that has connected with a powerful strike. I’ve used the total number of knockdowns a fighter landed divided by the number of landed power head strikes to see who does the most damage per strike landed. The size of the bubble for a fighter indicates their relative knockdown rate; the bigger the bubble, the higher their knockdown rate. The very small bubbles indicate fighters who have yet to score a knockdown in their Zuffa fights.
* The data includes all UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce fights through 2012, through UFC 155. Many of these fighters (such as Frankie Edgar) competed in other higher weight classes, but for the purposes of this analysis, that data was still included and analyzed.
