By the Numbers: UFC Fight Night 216

The final Ultimate Fighting Championship bout of 2022 was a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” type of affair.

In the end, the striking power and variety of Jared Cannonier made the difference in two of the three judges’ eyes, as he captured a spit-decision triumph over Sean Strickland in the UFC Fight Night 216 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. “The Killa Gorilla” has won three of four Octagon appearances and rebounds from a defeat to Israel Adesanya in a middleweight title bout this past summer. Strickland, meanwhile, has dropped back-to-back fights for the first time in his career.

Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight NIght 216, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.

152: Significant strikes landed by Strickland. By comparison, Cannonier landed 141. Strickland outlanded his opponent 28 to 25 in Round 2, 35 to 33 in Round 3, 33 to 27 in Round 4 and 43 to 40 in Round 5, while Cannonier held a 16-to-13 edge in Round 1.

126: Significant head strikes for Strickland. Cannonier, meanwhile, landed 56 significant strikes to the head.

60: Significant body strikes for Cannonier. Strickland landed 24 significant strikes to the body. Cannonier also held a 24-to-2 advantage in significant leg strikes.

0: Rounds that were scored unanimously in favor of either Cannonier or Strickland by cageside judges Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Junichiro Kamijo, according to the official scorecards.

13: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 20 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that awarded the fight to Cannonier. Media scores ranged from 50-45 to 48-47 in favor of Cannonier. Of the seven who saw the fight for Strickland, six scored it 48-47, while another had it 49-46.

21: Takedowns attempted by Arman Tsarukyan over three relentless rounds in a unanimous decision triumph against Damir Ismagulov in the lightweight co-main event. After landing just one of 10 attempts in Round 1, Tsarukyan was successful on six of his last 11 attempts over the final 10 minutes. Those efforts also enabled the Russian to log 9:25 of control time compared to six seconds for his opponent.

2,645: Days since Ismagulov’s last MMA defeat, a unanimous decision loss to Ramazan Esenbaev at M-1 Challenge 61 on Sept. 20, 2015. Ismagulov had reeled off 19 straight triumphs before falling to Tsarukyan.

2: Knockdowns landed for Amir Albazi en route to a a third-round knockout victory against Alessandro Costa at flyweight. Albazi also outlanded his foe 37 to 17 in significant strikes and secured 5:54 of control time to earn his fourth straight victory within the promotion.

10: Featherweight victories for Alex Caceres, tying him for fifth most in promotion history. “Bruce Leeroy” stopped Julian Erosa with a head kick and follow-up punches 3:04 into the opening stanza of their 145-pound clash.

4,699: Days since Caceres’ last true KO/TKO victory, a third-round technical knockout of Ketema Jahmal McLennan at G-Force Fights “Bad Blood 3” on Feb. 4, 2010. Caceres has one TKO victory in UFC competition, but that came between rounds as a result of an eye injury to opponent Rolando Dy at UFC Fight Night 111 on June 17, 2017.

8: KO/TKO victories for Drew Dober, tying him with Dustin Poirier for the most in the history of the UFC’s lightweight division. Dober knocked out Bobby Green 2:45 into Round 2 of their featured 155-pound bout on Saturday.

39: Significant striking deficit for Dober in victory, as Green outlanded him by a 73-to-34 count before the knockout. Green also landed at a 51 percent clip, while Dober connected on just 28 percent of his significant strikes.

4: Consecutive rounds with a knockdown for Matthew Semelsberger, tying him with Lyoto Machida, Jorge Masvidal and Daron Cruickshank for the third longest streak in UFC behind Chuck Liddell (five) and Sergei Pavlovich (five). Semelsberger floored Jake Matthews once in each round of a unanimous decision triumph on Saturday night, extending a streak that began with a third-round knockdown of Alex Morono in a decision loss at UFC 277.

1: Knockdown suffered in 16 previous Octagon appearances for Matthews before being dropped three times by Semelsberger. The only other person to floor Matthews in UFC competition was Akbarh Arreola at UFC 193.

7: Career knockdowns in seven UFC appearances for Semelsberger, who is 4-1 in bouts in which he has landed at least one knockdown.

.170: Significant striking accuracy for Maheshate Hayiser in a decision loss to Rafa Garcia. Hayiser, who missed weight for the lightweight clash, landed just 25 of 141 attempts in defeat. Garcia, meanwhile, landed 49 of 98 significant strikes — a 50 percent success rate.

14:11: Total control time for Rinat Fakhretdinov in a unanimous verdict over Bryan Battle at welterweight. That’s a record for a three-round fight in UFC competition. The Russian also secured seven of nine takedown attempts and outlanded his foe by a 102-to-25 count in total strikes. Fakhretdinov has logged a combined 27:11 of control time in two Octagon appearances.

25: Significant strikes by which Manel Kape outlanded David Dvorak in their preliminary flyweight encounter. That includes a 37-to-14 edge in Round 2, when the ex-Rizin champ scored the bout’s only knockdown. “Starboy” would go on to win a unanimous decision.

6: Takedowns landed in 13 attempts by Sergey Morozov in a unanimous decision triumph over Journey Newsom at bantamweight. That matches Morozov’s career best for takedowns landed, which was previously set in a victory against Khalid Taha at UFC on ESPN 26 in July 2021. Morozov also logged 6:59 of control time.