Fight Facts: PFL 7 2018 Regular Season

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities 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.

Total number of PFL Fights: 437
Total number of PFL Events: 45

In its final event of the opening round of the 2018 tournament, the Professional Fighters League brought a card set on wrapping things up and delivered in spectacular fashion. The event featured the new fastest knockout victory, beating the record set two weeks ago, the first spinning back kick knockout under the World Series of Fighting/PFL lights and several fighters catapulting themselves into the tournament with quick stoppages.

LET US STOP THIS MINDLESS VIOLENCE! Seven fights at PFL 7 ended by knockout, tying the record for the most at an event with WSOF 2, WSOF 25 and PFL 2. This event also tied the record for the most clean knockouts (non-TKO) with four, joining WSOF 2.

WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? PFL 7 featured a whopping six first round knockouts, the most at a single event inside the promotion.

DON’T NEED A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION: Three fighters made their first appearances in the PFL tournament -- Alexandre Bezerra, Handesson Ferreira, and Emiliano Sordi -- and each scored first-round knockouts to earn spots in their respective tournaments. Mike Kyle also made his tournament debut after an injury knocked him out of his PFL 1 bout with Shawn Jordan, but he lost by decision and was eliminated from contention.

PROVEN COMMODITIES: Of the 48 fighters to make it to the quarterfinals of the PFL tournaments, 22 previously competed inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN: It took Sordi just 16 seconds to knock out Jason Butcher, and in doing so, Sordi earned the quickest victory in company history, beating the record set by Ray Cooper III at PFL 6 two weeks ago.

NEED MORE THAN AN APPLE A DAY: When the doctors intervened between rounds to call a stop to the main event bout between Smealinho Rama and Jamie Abdallah, it became the second main event in company history to end by doctor stoppage. This first occurred at WSOF 34 in 2016 when Justin Gaethje prevailed by doctor stoppage over Luiz Firmino.

SPIN STRAW INTO GOLD: Knocking out Sean O'Connell with a spinning back kick and follow-up punches, Bozigit Ataev became the first fighter under the WSOF/PFL banner to ever knock an opponent out with a spinning back kick.

FLYING HIGH AGAIN: Smashing Magomed Idrisov with a flying knee, Bezerra made his PFL debut by becoming the fifth fighter in WSOF/PFL history to win with a flying knee. Three of the five flying knee victories inside the promotion have taken place in the 2018 PFL tournament.

YOU SO CRAZY: Ferreira made his promotional debut by stopping Paul Bradley with a barrage of punches in only 20 seconds, recording the third fastest win in company history. His nickname, “Boy Doido,” roughly translates to “crazy boy” from Portuguese to English.

TWO FIRST NAMES: Dropping a decision to Caio Alencar, Mike Kyle picked up his fifth loss with WSOF/PFL, the most in promotional history.

RECIPE FOR DESTRUCTION: Coming into their bout, Sordi and Butcher had competed a combined 37 times, with 35 of those bouts ending by stoppage, and each losing their only bout that ever went the distance. As many expected, the fight ended by knockout.

JASON AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD TOURNAMENT: Despite dropping two fights by technical submission, Jason High was granted the unique opportunity to compete in the opening round a third time. Due to a botched weight cut, High missed weight by four pounds against prospective opponent, forcing the promotion to pull him from the card and tournament as well.

THAT WAS EASY: A six fight UFC veteran, Johnny Case was slated to enter the PFL tournament at lightweight by competing against High. As High missed weight and was pulled from the matchup, Case was awarded three points and qualified for the lightweight tournament without ever having to step inside the cage.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into PFL 7, Idrisov and Magalhaes had never been knocked out (9 and 15 fights, respectively), Butcher had never been stopped with strikes (14 bouts, 1 injury TKO loss) and no fighter had ever had two consecutive fights end by doctor stoppage (Rama).

Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing 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.