Fight Facts: UFC on ABC 1

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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: 5,935
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 547

The Ultimate Fighting Championship staged its first-ever event on the ABC network, stacking its main card with sure-fire thrillers that each delivered. The lone major MMA card of 2021 so far put up a few nominees for year-end awards already, but none more significant than the performance in the main event. The victor in the UFC on ABC 1 headliner practically rewrote the record book, setting or extending his own records previously thought unbreakable.

MMA on Every Channel: The UFC returned to network television for the first time since UFC on Fox 31 in 2018. In that gap, the promotion put on 84 events totaling 985 bouts, with gold on the line in 40 of those matches.

Killing Spree: Per UFCStats, Max Holloway landed 445 significant strikes on Calvin Kattar in a five-round showcase performance. This is far and away the record for the most strikes ever landed by a fighter in one bout, with the previous record Holloway’s 290-strike offering against Brian Ortega at UFC 231 in 2018.

Rampage: Even when counting only strikes to Kattar’s head (274), Holloway very nearly topped his record for total strikes against Ortega.

Dominating: In the fourth round alone, Holloway lumped up Kattar with a whopping 141 significant strikes. His total in that five-minute stretch eclipsed Kattar’s entire output for the fight, while also exceeding his own record for a single round of 134 shots against Ortega.

Unstoppable: The 29-year-old Holloway threw a remarkable 746 strikes across 25 minutes, with a record 29.84 strikes attempted per minute in a five-round fight. That is one strike attempted every two seconds from start to finish.

GODLIKE: In comparison to Holloway’s total 746 strikes offered in the main event, the other 18 fighters in the previous nine fights combined for a total of 831 significant strikes scored.

WICKED SICK: The previous greatest striking differential between two fighters came when Holloway outlanded Ortega by 180 significant strikes. Holloway obliterated that record, putting 312 more shots on his foe than Kattar could return.

He Landed A Few Without Looking: Holloway and Ortega landed a total of 400 significant strikes in their 2018 battle, breaking the record previously held by Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone at UFC 141 in 2011 (334). Holloway’s 445 significant strikes landed by himself eclipsed that. When adding Kattar’s 133 of his own, the tally elevates to 578.

Big 10: In his last 10 fights, Holloway has landed 1,756 significant strikes all told. That 10-fight tally alone would put Holloway on the top of the list for the most significant strikes landed in UFC history. Holloway competed 14 times before that stretch began.

MSP: While the Hawaiian already holds the all-time significant strike lead, by putting a total of 447 strikes on Kattar – two may have come in clinch situations where they were not deemed significant – he passed Georges St. Pierre’s 2,591 mark of total strikes landed with this performance. Holloway is now the UFC striking king, with 2,805 total strikes put on his career opponents.

There Were Many Firefights: In eight consecutive bouts for the former champ, Holloway has surpassed the 100 significant strike mark. In doing so, he extends his own UFC record.

Blessing His Opponents with Punches: “Blessed” became the second fighter in UFC history to put up at least 200 significant strikes in multiple bouts. The first was Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who did so against Valerie Letourneau and later against Jessica Andrade. The 200-significant strike threshold has been crossed just eight times in company history.

Blessed Express Non-Stop: Holloway is now the second fighter in company history to go the distance in five consecutive five-round bouts. The first to do so is St. Pierre, who fought to the 25-minute mark in seven straight fights from 2009 to 2013.

Head Like a Coconut: Although he absorbed 133 significant strikes, including 99 to the head, Holloway was never knocked down in the fight. A 24-fight UFC vet, Holloway has gone through his whole career without ever suffering a knockdown, improving his own organizational record for that category as well.

Any Fight Between Top-10 Featherweights Is FOTN: The two participants of the main event earned “Fight of the Night” honors for their work, giving Holloway his fourth as a featherweight. Holloway only trails Jeremy Stephens (five) and Cub Swanson (six) for the most in divisional history.

Still Boston Strong: The scorecards of 50-43, 50-43 and 50-42 for Holloway over the Boston native tied for the widest gap of any five-round fight in UFC history. This 22-point difference is the same as then-middleweight champ Rich Franklin‘s 2006 dismantling of David Loiseau.

Dream Come True Fight: Taking home a decision over Matt Brown, Carlos Condit put himself on the first win streak since he captured the interim welterweight strap against Nick Diaz at UFC 143 in February 2012. At that time, nine of the 19 other fighters on this card had yet to make their pro debuts, while only two were even on the roster: Brown and Holloway, who made his UFC debut that night.

Trap Fight: Flattening Santiago Ponzinibbio with one punch, Jingliang Li snapped the Argentinian’s seven-fight win streak. Li closed as the largest underdog on the card at +280, and had the upset taken place in 2020, it would have closed as one of the 10 biggest UFC betting upsets of the year.

Buckley Got Buckleyed: Author of the 2020 Sherdog.com “Knockout of the Year,” Joaquin Buckley returned only to have his consciousness removed by an Alessio Di Chirico head kick. Buckley is now the fifth fighter in promotional history to both record and suffer clean knockouts from kicks, joining Cerrone, Vitor Belfort, Luke Rockhold and Andre Fili.

Hawaiians Had A Good Night: Punahele Soriano wrecked Dusko Todorovic to lift his spotless record to 8-0. Through his four-year career, the Hawaiian has notched seven finishes, all in the first round.

Gorets Go Long: Capturing a split verdict over David Zawada, Ramazan Emeev has now gone the distance in each of his last seven bouts.

Let’s Never Speak of It Again: Not to be outdone by Emeev later on in the card, Vanessa Melo went the distance with Sarah Moras and won a unanimous decision. The Brazilian’s last 11 bouts have all involved the judges.

Energy to Burn: In a largely unsuccessful effort to ground Austin Lingo, Jacob Kilburn attempted 18 takedowns throughout the course of the fight while only securing one. This places Kilburn in the Top 10 for the most takedown attempts in one fight in UFC featherweight history. The 145-pound record stands at 21, in a three-way tie between Nik Lentz, Yui Chul Nam and Darren Elkins.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ABC 1, Todorovic had never been defeated (10 fights), Yanan Wu (15 fights) and Kilburn (11 fights) had never dropped consecutive bouts and Justin Tafa had never gone the distance (five fights).

Like Climbing A Mountain: As is customary for Holloway, he selects a different song to mash up as part of his walkout package. This bout, the former champ picked “Mount Everest” by Labrinth to lead into his standard choice of “Hawaiian Kickboxer” by Moke Boy.

Mostly Immortal: For each of his last eight fights, Brown has entered using a custom walkout song made for him by Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta called “The Immortal.” Both Jasta and Brown fans of one another’s body of work; Jasta created the track in 2015 for his solo project’s debut album.