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Fight Facts: UFC 236


The ordering process for Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-views has changed: UFC 236 is only available on ESPN+ in the U.S.

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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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 5,090
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 474

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday returned to Atlanta for the first time since 2016 with outstanding main and co-main event battles. UFC 236 featured the end of an incredible winning streak, a few fighters who are practically allergic to boring fights and one of the quickest knockouts in UFC bantamweight history.

INTO THE BLUE: All five main card fighters from the blue corner won at UFC 236. This last occurred at UFC 226 in July.

BEAUCOUP BUCKS: Both the headlining and co-headlining bouts earned “Fight of the Night” honors, making this event the first since UFC 218 in 2017 to give two fights those bonuses; Max Holloway also headlined UFC 218. Only 10 other events throughout company history have given multiple “Fight of the Night” bonuses, and one -- “The Ultimate Fighter 9” Finale -- doled out three such bonuses.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: It took Dustin Poirier 21 fights in the Octagon to finally earn a title shot. Only Michael Bisping (25 fights) took longer to fight for a belt in the UFC. Both men prevailed in their first attempt to win gold.

THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION IS MORE BONUSES: Each of the last four fights for Poirier have seen him awarded a post-fight bonus.

COMBO BROKEN: Holloway lost for the first time since 2014, ending his 13-fight winning streak. His streak stands tied with Demetrious Johnson and Georges St. Pierre for the second-most consecutive victories all-time. Only Anderson Silva (16) won more bouts in a row.

COLLEGE FUND FOR MINI BLESSED: Despite losing, Holloway earned “Fight of the Night” honors. In his last five fights, he has earned five post-fight bonuses.

STILL INTACT: Israel Adesanya faced the toughest test of his career and earned a decision win over Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event, and in doing so, he improved his undefeated record to 17-0. It was only the fourth time he has put his fate in the hands of the judges.

BUILDING THE BANK ACCOUNT: After winning “Fight of the Night” in an instant classic with Gastelum, Adesanya has also now won post-fight bonuses in each of his last four bouts and five in his last six.

PUTTING FOUR ON THE FLOOR: Khalil Rountree knocked down Eryk Anders a staggering four times in the second round of their bout. That tied the record for the most knockdowns landed in a single round with Josh Emmett, who floored Felipe Arantes four times in Round 1 at UFC Fight Night 117 in 2017.

LONG LIVE AL CAPONE: After tapping out Ovince St. Preux in the second round, Nikita Krylov has finished his opponent in all 25 of his career victories. In fact, he has never reached the scorecards in any of his 31 bouts. This was the seventh time he had fought beyond the first round.

FLYING THROUGH COMPETITION: In scoring a first-round knockout of Wilson Reis at 2:58, Alexandre Pantoja joined seven other fighters in flyweight divisional history to earn multiple first-round stoppage victories. Pantoja tapped Ulka Sasaki in the first round with a rear-naked choke at UFC Fight Night 140 in November. Only Pantoja and Ben Nguyen have put out back-to-back opponents in the first round at flyweight.

BECAUSE SEVEN ATE NINE: With his knockout, Pantoja now holds eight submission victories, seven wins by knockout and six wins on the scorecards.

WINNER BY MAJORITY: The battle between Max Griffin and Zelim Imadaev ended with the former getting his hand raised by majority decision. Imadaev was deducted one point for grabbing the cage in the first round. This was the first majority decision inside the Octagon since Bryce Mitchell narrowly prevailed over Tyler Diamond at “The Ultimate Fighter 27” Finale in 2018.

HOW TO DERAIL A HYPE TRAIN: By spoiling Boston Salmon’s promotional debut in 25 seconds, Khalid Taha tied Iuri Alcantara’s knockout of Vaughan Lee at UFC Fight Night 41 in 2014 for the fourth-fastest knockout in UFC bantamweight history.

ARE YOU READY FOR ROUND TWO?: Leading up to his promotional debut against Brandon Davis, Randy Costa had compiled a total of 2:50 of fight time inside the cage throughout his first four career bouts. He more than doubled that time against Davis, though he wound up getting finished with a rear-naked choke at 1:12 of the second round.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC 236, Holloway had never lost a fight scheduled for five rounds (six fights), Salmon had never been finished (seven fights) and Imadaev (eight fights) and Costa (four fights) had never been defeated.

RIP NIPSEY HUSSLE: Three fighters walked out to tracks by recently deceased rapper Nipsey Hussle at this event. Adesanya made his walk to the cage with “Victory Lap,” while Jalin Turner used “Ocean Views” and Belal Muhammad came out to “Grinding All My Life.” Prior to this event, only two fighters had ever used music by Hussle: Leon Roberts (three times) and Albert Morales.

PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS: Following his no-contest with Eddie Alvarez in 2017, Poirier changed his walkout music to “The Boss” by James Brown. He has won every fight since.

DON’T LOOK DOWN, LOOK FORWARD: Like each of his previous 13 appearances, Holloway was accompanied to the cage by “Hawaiian Kickboxer” by Moke Boy. For the first time, he suffered a loss after using the track.

YOU SAID THE SECRET WORD: Two competitors utilized songs with the word “victory” in the title: Adesanya with “Victory Lap” and Dwight Grant with “Victory” by Puff Daddy featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes. Both men emerged victorious.

Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry. Advertisement
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