Fight Facts: UFC 232
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 EVENTS: 463
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday ended the year with a bang, as UFC 232 played host to a wild night of fights at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The event featured the coronation of perhaps the greatest female fighter of all-time, an extremely rare three-time champion and more drama than you can shake a stick at.
WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT: A week before UFC 232,
the promotion relocated the event from Las Vegas to the Los Angeles
suburbs. This is not the first time the UFC has executed such a
move, as UFC 12 in 1997 faced pressure in New York to get
sanctioned, so the show was relocated to Dothan, Alabama.
DON’T BLINK: Ten fights ended by stoppage at UFC 232, one shy of the record set by UFC Fight Night 55 in 2014 and tied by UFC 224 three and a half years later.
BUT A WHIMPER: The final bout shown on any Fox network was Andrei Arlovski-Walt Harris at heavyweight. The first UFC bout as part of the Fox deal was also at heavyweight: Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos.
ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO: Three fighters came in with 10-plus-fight unbeaten streaks -- Jon Jones, Cristiane Justino and Alexander Volkanovski -- and by the time the event ended, only Jones and Volkanovski had kept their streaks intact.
JONNY THREE TIMES: Jones became the first three-time light heavyweight champion in UFC history when he stopped Alexander Gustafsson in the main event. He is now the second fighter -- Randy Couture at heavyweight was the first -- in promotional history to win a belt in the same weight class three times, although the title Jones won against Ovince St. Preux was of the interim variety.
THE ELITE OF ELITES: By defeating Gustafsson, Jones extended his record for the most wins (17) in light heavyweight history and tied Chuck Liddell for the most finishes (10) in divisional history.
THAT SONG BY BOSTON: Amanda Nunes became the first female fighter in the UFC to simultaneously hold two belts and the third fighter overall in the company to do so, joining Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier.
NO-BRAINER: Earning herself perhaps the most deserved post-fight bonus ever, Nunes picked up a “Performance of the Night” bonus for her knockout victory of Justino. She has now earned post-fight bonuses in three of her last five outings, with first-round finishes of Justino, Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey paving the way.
THE QUEEN: Nunes earned her 10th win inside the Octagon, tying Jessica Andrade for the most in women’s divisional history.
FINISH HER!: In finishing Justino in the first round, Nunes earned her eighth stoppage inside the UFC, extending her own record for the most finishes in women’s divisional history. Of those eight finishes, seven came in the first round -- more than any other female fighter.
SPEED AND POWER: When she demolished Justino in 51 seconds, Nunes picked up the sixth-fastest stoppage in women’s UFC history. Five of those six finishes have come from either Rousey or Nunes.
PRACTICALLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY: According to Aaron Bronsteter of TSN Sports, Nunes has surrendered just 14 significant strikes in bouts against former champions Justino, Rousey, Tate and Germaine de Randamie.
SHE DID WHAT?: Coming into her bout with Nunes, Justino had never been knocked out. Her lone previous blemish came in a 106-second kneebar loss to Erica Paes in her 2005 MMA debut.
ONE-ARMED SCISSOR: Every time Michael Chiesa has finished an opponent, it has been by submission, following his one-handed kimura of Carlos Condit. He has finished his opponent in 11 of his 15 wins throughout his career.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR THEN: Following his knockout loss to Alexander Volkanovski, Chad Mendes reportedly retired from MMA. Undefeated in his first 11 bouts before meeting Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight throne and ultimately losing, three-time title challenger Mendes retired as the first man to ever knock out the ultra-durable Clay Guida. Going a perfect 4-0 in the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion before it was absorbed into the UFC, Mendes went 9-5 in the UFC with six knockouts and earned five post-fight bonuses along the way, including one in his bout with Volkanovski.
SCREECHING HALT: Prior to beating Andrei Arlovski on the scorecards, Walt Harris had recorded all of his 11 wins by knockout within two rounds.
FOURTEEN POINTS: Arlovski made his 28th appearance at heavyweight, the most in the division’s history. Arlovski debuted at UFC 28 in 2000 and competed 14 times inside the promotion before leaving in 2008. After departing the UFC, Arlovski fought 14 times outside the organization before signing again in 2014. Since then, Arlovski has competed 14 more times with the UFC.
TOETAL ACCIDENT: Through no fault of their own, the bout between Megan Anderson and Cat Zingano ended by TKO due to an eye injury in 61 seconds when one of Anderson’s toes struck Zingano’s eye. It marked the first women’s bout in the UFC to end via injury and ranks as the seventh-fastest stoppage in women’s divisional history, just behind Nunes’s victory over Justino.
HOOK, LINE AND SINKER: In delivering a heel hook at 2:46 of the first round against B.J. Penn, Ryan Hall earned the second heel hook victory in UFC lightweight history -- a feat first performed in 2011 by Paul Sass against Michael Johnson at UFC on Versus 6. Of all 17 heel hooks performed throughout UFC history, 15 have occurred in the first round and two in the second.
NO MAS: In losing to Hall, Penn dropped his sixth straight fight inside the Octagon. Penn has not won a fight since November 2010 and tied the record for the most consecutive losses in the UFC with Elvis Sinosic, Phil Baroni and Hector Lombard.
INCONCEIVABLE: In a career spanning 30 fights across 17 years, Penn had suffered 12 defeats but never by submission -- until Hall tapped him with a heel hook.
DEFINITELY A PROSPECT: After submitting Andre Ewell, 13 of Nathaniel Wood’s 15 career victories have come by stoppage.
BRABISSIMO: Montel Jackson’s first-round, 100-second brabo choke of Brian Kelleher marked the fastest victory with that submission in company history.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC 232, Jackson had never won by submission (seven fights), Bevon Lewis had never been defeated as a professional (six fights) and Zingano (13 fights) and Douglas Silva de Andrade (28 fights) had never been knocked out.
I LIKE TO TAP THE STREETS: Chiesa again made his walk to the cage with Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” playing in the arena and won by submission. Fighters to walk out to this song have now won 20 recorded times, good for fifth-most all-time inside the UFC.
NOT FLYING, FALLING WITH STYLE: With Ilir Latifi walking out to “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti from the “Rocky” soundtrack and losing a decision to Corey Anderson, fighters walking out to that song have lost a recorded 15 times. That total ties “Can’t Be Touched” by Body Head Bangerz for the fourth-most losses for a walkout song in UFC history.
IN THE LAND OF THE BLIND: Anderson made her walk to the Octagon accompanied by 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me” and won her fight by TKO due to an eye injury.
KEEP FROM GOING UNDER: For the first time in his lengthy career, Penn walked out to "Check Yo Self" by Ice Cube instead of his traditional choice of "Hawaii '78" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, and ultimately lost his bout by heel hook to Hall. The song had previously been used four times prior by fellow Hawaiian Yancy Medeiros.
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.
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