Fight Facts: UFC on ESPN 16

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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: 5,807
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 535

The Ultimate Fighting Championship made the best of a bad situation with a card that did not contain a single ranked male fighter. With the women carrying the banner at UFC on ESPN 16, the show lived up to expectations. This event featured a miraculous submission from a kickboxer, an increasingly common draw and the revival of an all-action legend.

Leave It to the Ladies: UFC on ESPN 16 is the second UFC event this year with no ranked men on the card. The first came at UFC Fight Night 177 in September, when top-ranked Thiago Santos vs. Glover Teixeira at light heavyweight was canceled a week before the show. Prior to these events, the last event with no ranked male fighters is “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 26 Finale in December 2017.

Not Finished Yet: Taking a clear-cut decision over Irene Aldana, Holly Holm put herself on her first win streak since she won the title from Ronda Rousey in 2015. Holm has still yet to lose to an opponent who was a champ at the time or would become a champion shortly thereafter.

The Head Kick Sells: The headliner, Holm’s sixth on the UFC roster, tied Rousey for the most main event appearances in women’s divisional history.

Long Haul Holly: Needing the full 25 minutes to defeat Aldana, Holm has reached the fifth round on five separate occasions under the UFC banner. In doing so, she broke a tie with Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko for the second-most fifth-round appearances for any female UFC fighter. Joanna Jedrzejczyk stands atop the list with eight fights that have gone into the fifth round.

Rumblin’, Bumblin’, Stumblin’: The heavyweight co-headliner of Carlos Felipe vs. Yorgan De Castro went the distance with Felipe taking home a decision. It is just the second heavyweight bout in the last 11 in the weight class to reach the scorecards. The other in the last few months was Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier 3.

The Iron Guillotine: Germaine de Randamie became the first female fighter in company history to put her opponent out with a guillotine choke, rendering Julianna Pena unconscious with one in the third round.

Sleeping Beauties: The choke coming at 3:25 of Round 3, de Randamie scored the second-latest submission win in UFC women’s bantamweight history. The latest came at the expense of Holm in the fifth round at UFC 196 in 2016 – both of those finishes were technical submissions.

Dusko Dusted Him: Dusko Todorovic earned his first UFC win by busting up Dequan Townsend in the second round. The Serbian fighter is now a perfect 10-0 across his career, and he has finished nine of those foes before the third round.

The Natural Born Revival: Carlos Condit is one of a small few across UFC history to snap a five-fight win streak inside the Octagon. “The Natural Born Killer” captured a decision over Court McGee to get his first win in five years. Others to break similar winless stretches include Andrei Arlovski and Joshua Burkman, where the latter had five losses with a no-contest along the way.

Recharging the Conduit: Condit’s last win came over Thiago Alves in May 2015, over five years ago. At the time, only Holm, Pena and McGee were on the roster of the 21 other fighters competing on this card. Eight fighters that fought at UFC on ESPN 16 had yet to make their pro debuts at the time Condit won his last match.

He’ll Get ‘Em Next Time: The decision victory for Condit is just the third in his 18-year career, and his win lowered his finish rate to 90 percent.

Judges All Over the Map: Charles Jourdain fought to a split draw with Joshua Culibao, earning the 12th of this type of draw in UFC history. The fight taking place at featherweight, more split draws have come in this division than any other weight class.

Returning to the Drawing Board: Four draws have been awarded so far in 2020, and the only years with more draws for the UFC are 2017 and 2019 (five each) and 2016 (seven).

Britalian: Young in his career and earning his ninth win, Luigi Vendramini kept his 100 percent finish rate intact when he stopped Jessin Ayari with a salvo of punches amidst a head kick.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ESPN 16, Aldana had never fought beyond the fourth round (17 fights), de Randamie had never won by submission (13 fights) and De Castro (seven fights) and Frey (14 fights) had never lost consecutive bouts.

Gotta Get Down to It: Bucking his normal choice of “Cinderella Man” by Eminem, McGee elected to walk out to “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. McGee is the first recorded fighter in UFC history to walk out to any song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

It’s Not A Game: Culibao made his walk to the cage with “El Chapo” by The Game & Skrillex playing in the background. Fighting to a draw with Jourdain, no recorded fighter has yet to win while using the track.