Fight Facts: UFC 223 ‘Nurmagomedov vs. Iaquinta’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship keeps running into problems when bringing events to Brooklyn, New York, as several UFC 223 fights were scrapped on fight week due to unforeseen complications. Pushing through arguably the craziest week in its history, the organization still promoted a solid card at the Barclays Center -- a card that featured the meteoric rise of a featherweight contender, the emergence of a new era in the women’s strawweight division and a fighter who has never lost a round inside the Octagon.

SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAPPEN: With only nine bouts on the card, UFC 223 featured the fewest number of fights at an event since UFC Fight Night 70 in June 2015. It also featured the fewest number of fights on a pay-per-view card since UFC 177, which also famously lost multiple bouts on fight week and was called “the haunted UFC card” by commentator Joe Rogan.

DESPERATE TIMES: UFC 223 became the first pay-per-view event since UFC 200 in July 2016 with two headlining fighters who had never appeared in a UFC main event.

PUT THAT ON A POSTER: UFC 223 “Khabib vs. Iaquinta” became the first pay-per-view event in UFC history to be officially titled with the given name of a fighter instead of his or her surname or nickname.

MUCH SLEEP IN BROOKLYN: At two UFC events featuring a combined 19 fights in the city of Brooklyn, New York, fans have been treated to 16 decisions, two technical knockouts and one submission. Due to the lack of finishes, all three of the fighters who have finished fights there have been awarded “Performance of the Night” bonuses.

HOSTILE TERRITORY: All four fighters from the Boston area -- Calvin Kattar, Kyle Bochniak, Joe Lauzon and Mike Rodriguez -- lost their bouts.

NO CAN DEFENSE: After the UFC awarded Khabib Nurmagomedov the undisputed lightweight title for his win over Al Iaquinta, Conor McGregor was stripped of his belt and joined Jon Jones as the second fighter in UFC history to be stripped of multiple titles.

UNSTOPPABLE: With scorecards of 50-44, 50-43 and 50-43, Nurmagomedov continued his streak of never having lost a round in any of his 10 fights inside the UFC; that spans 29 consecutive rounds. While controversial, Nurmagomedov’s win over Gleison Tibau consisted of three 30-27 scorecards. The longest consecutive round winning streak stands at 33, held by Georges St. Pierre, whose streak started at UFC 74 against Josh Koscheck in 2007 and ended at UFC 129 against Jake Shields in 2011.

ZABEAST: Following his thrilling performance against Bochniak, Zabit Magomedsharipov earned a “Fight of the Night” bonus. He has now earned post-fight bonuses in all three of his UFC appearances. Magomedsharipov became just the fifth fighter in UFC history whose forename starts with the letter “Z” to win at least three bouts inside the UFC. Zach Makovsky, Zak Cummings, Zak Ottow and Zubaira Tukhugov are the others.

TOO TOUGH FOR HIS OWN GOOD: Lauzon’s TKO loss due to a corner stoppage was the first of its kind since Marco Beltran’s corner stopped his fight against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 212 in 2017. It was just the 17th bout in UFC history stopped by a fighter’s corner and only the fourth since B.J. Penn’s famous corner stoppage loss to St. Pierre in 2009.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Entering UFC 223, Olivier Aubin-Mercier had never won a fight by knockout or technical knockout; Joanna Jedrzejczyk had never lost a fight that went to the scorecards; and an event had never had three fight cancellations due to the conduct of a fighter who was not participating at said event.

CHANGE IT UP: For the first time in her 10-fight UFC career, Jedrzejczyk chose a different walkout song than Polish rapper Rena gośc. Gutek’s “Przejmij ster w swoje dłonie.” Although she enjoyed a stellar 8-1 record while walking out to that song, Jedrzejczyk moved on to “Revolution” by Diplo featuring Faustix & Imanos and Kai. Nevertheless, she lost a unanimous decision to Rose Namajunas.

STRUCK OUT: Walking out to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” before his bout against Aubin-Mercier, Evan Dunham was on the receiving end of a first-round knockout. It was the 20th recorded use of “Thunderstruck” in UFC history. With Dunham’s loss, it owns the lowest winning percentage for any song with at least 20 recorded uses at 35 percent.

Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. He put together a UFC fight result and entrance music database to better study MMA and has been covering the sport since he started studying the Eminem Curse in 2012, writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.