Just as we saw after Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage Jackson, the demand for stats is greatest in the wake of a controversial decision. The traffic to the report for Machida vs. Shogun broke our site records by several times. We're also happy to see the stats used in a number of places, including on MMA Live over at ESPN. Check out the video about 13 minutes in for a shout-out and some air time for the FightMetric numbers.
The stats are now posted for the fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Stay tuned for some analysis of the numbers and a list of a whole host of things that happened to Machida for the first time in his career.
We were thrilled to receive such a positive response to the FightMetric Fellowship Program. There was an abundance of qualified applicants, but in the end, we could only choose a few. We are proud to introduce the people chosen for the 2009-10 Fellowship Cohort:
John Henry
John is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics whose research hasfocused on extreme value theory with applications in environmental/ecological and actuarial science. Dr. Henry received his PhD in statistics from Oregon State University in 2008. John is also an MMA fighter, winning the light heavyweight title in his last amateur fight with Brass Knuckles Cage Fighting Promotions. He has recently turned pro, and is currently training with the HIT Squad in Granite City, IL.
Reed Kuhn
Reed first got hooked on MMA as a teenager in the early 90's, but rediscovered the sport in grad school while working on statistical analysis of the NFL. Since 2005, he has not missed a single televised MMA event, has traveled as far as Germany to attend live UFC events, and credits The Ultimate Fighter show for making his wife a fan (and thus, partially accepting of his MMA habit). He is a strategy management consultant by trade, with a BS in Physics, a Master's in Systems Engineering, and an MBA from Duke University specializing in Operations and Decision Sciences.
Leland Roling
Leland is currently a Staff Writer for BloodyElbow.com, one of the most popular blogs on the Internet covering the sport of mixed martial arts. He is also a full-time professional web developer who builds data-driven websites that make the Internet work for you. In his free time, he is President of the Melvin Manhoef Fan Club, watches way too much MMA, and passionately awaits the Chicago Cubs World Series title, which, quite frankly, will probably kill him.
Brian Reich
Brian received a PhD in biostatistics from the University of Minnesota in 2005, and is currently an assistant professor of statistics at North Carolina State University. His research interests include modeling spatial and spatio-temporal data, environmental applications, Bayesian methods, and nonparametric statistics. For more information, please view his website.
We've now posted the in-depth report for the fight between Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone. Reading the reactions and live scoring online, it seems most everyone agrees that Henderson won Rounds 2 and 3, while Cerrone won Rounds 4 and 5. The Effectiveness Scores do reflect those conclusions. The question is about Round 1. What do you value more, Henderson's takedowns and ground strikes or Cerrone's tight submission attempts?
Anyone who's been coming here for a while should be able to guess what the Effectiveness Scores have to say about Round 1. But is the answer satisfying?
