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Check Us Out in the UFC 100 Magazine

It's a little like playing Where's Waldo, but if you look closely, you can find FightMetric in the premier issue of new UFC magazine.

Can't find it? Check out the feature on The 20 Greatest Fights Ever, starting on page 108. The yellow band at the bottom of the subsequent pages contains some interesting factoids from the UFC's history. And if you follow it all the way until the end on page 116...there we are. How could you miss it?

Why Won't Judges Call a Round 10-10?

With the judging at the TUF 9 Finale raising so much ire this week, much of the focus has been on two fights that were not broadcast on Spike. We have now posted the stats for two controversial decisions on the undercard, the fight between Melvin Guillard and Gleison Tibau and the fight between Brad Blackburn and Edgar Garcia.

Both fights produced scores with the same issue: Two of the rounds were too close to call, with the third round producing a clear winner. In both cases, the system produced a score of 30-29. Of course, to do this, you have to be willing to call a 10-10 round. This is no problem for an objective stat system but seemingly impossible for a human judge. It wasn't always that way. Back at UFC 33, the first UFC event held in Las Vegas, there were three fights that had judges call at least one 10-10 round. Only one event since has had as many as two fights with a 10-10 round. The judges at UFC 33 are the same exact ones working shows today. What changed?

What Good is Top Position...

...when you're getting beaten by the guy on the bottom? Round two of last night's fight between Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida was an object lesson in why top position is not always better. While Guida did maintain top control, he got outstruck 16-3 in power shots to the head, thanks to a bevy of elbows coming from Sanchez on the bottom. Joe Rogan made the comment that those might have been the most effective elbows from bottom that we'd ever seen, but we've seen those elbows used to pretty good effect before. Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter and Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon are some other good examples of the devastating effect of this under-utilized weapon. They very well might be the most effective strike that most fighters will never use.

An impressive showing by Sanchez is made more impressive by the advances he has made in putting offense into his guard. What a difference this was from the guard he displayed against Jon Fitch, where Sanchez landed basically no strikes of consequence on the ground. In the Fitch fight, Sanchez concentrated almost exclusively on submissions. In the fight against Guida, Sanchez threw strikes where available and still managed to latch-on a few good submission attempts.

The scores from the fight show a victory for Sanchez 30-26, though that could very easily be 29-27, as Glenn Trowbridge scored it. Round 1 was a 10-8 round, using our objective criteria (score over 100 and more than 6x opponents' score) and Round 2 goes to Sanchez thanks to his offensive guard. Round 3 is basically a toss-up, which the system gives to Sanchez on damage, but could easily go Guida's way instead.

Also, check out the stats from Joe Stevenson vs. Nate Diaz and from Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns.

Rich Franklin = Nailbiter?

Historically, Rich Franklin is not a fighter you associated with razor-thin decisions. For the better part of his career, Franklin either won big or lost big (thanks to Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida). The exception to this rule was Franklin's fight against Yushin Okami two years ago. This was a very important fight for him, because a win would get him another crack at the middleweight belt, while a loss would set him back severely. Franklin fought a cautious fight and capitalized on Okami's slow start, just squeaking by for a decision.

Franklin's win over Wanderlei Silva on Saturday night marked his second consecutive close decision. The stats for the fight show a clear victory in Round 1 for Franklin, but then two close rounds that could have gone either way. This, following a coin-flip kind of decision against Dan Henderson, that could have easily been called a draw. Is this Franklin being cautious with his career, facing stiffer competition, or is this kind of fight one that we can expect consistenly from the new Rich Franklin?

Also, check out the stats from Dan Hardy vs. Marcus Davis to see if Davis has a case when he says he didn't lose, and look at the numbers from Cain Velasquez vs. Cheick Kongo to see just how many of those little punches to the head Velasquez landed.

UPDATE: By popular demand, we've added the stats for the fight between Spencer Fisher and Caol Uno.

Is Lyoto Machida the Best Fighter in the UFC?

The answer to the above question is highly subjective, however, there are a few things that we can look at statistically to make some personal conclusions. We've now posted Lyoto's performance stats from last night (along with Hughes vs. Serra), but here were the facts going into the fight last night:

Machida has the lowest SApM (strikes absorbed per minute) of any fighter in UFC history by a very large margin. Coming into the fight last night, Machida's SApM was 0.58. After the fight, that dropped to 0.55. The next lowest SApM belongs to Anderson Silva, but it's not even close. Silva's SApM is 0.73, even after 25 minutes of not getting hit by Thales Leites. Just as a reminder, Fedor's SApM is 0.53.

Machida is the second-most accurate striker in the UFC (for fighters with at least 300 strike attempts), with a hit rate of 65%. The only fighter better is Silva.

Coming into the fight, Machida had the second-highest takedown success rate (for fighters with at least 10 attempts) at 82%. The only fighter better is Gray Maynard.

Machida's takedown defense rate is 84%, second best (among fighters with 25 takedowns attempted against them), trailing only Georges St. Pierre.

Machida has scored a knockdown on all but one of his UFC opponents (can you name the one he didn't?). After last night's thrashing, he's scored nine knockdowns in seven fights, a rate that matches Chuck Liddell at his peak.

He is now only the third undefeated fighter to hold a belt in the modern UFC era (can you name the other two?).

Again, there's no objectively correct answer to the question in the title. But these are some fun numbers to play with while making your own decision.

Seeking Volunteers for Beta-Test

UPDATE: Thank you to those who volunteered. We will hopefully have more opportunities soon for others who wish to help.

We're looking for a few people to help test out a new feature. This will only take 10 minutes of your time and should be a lot of fun. If you can help us out, just send an email to info@fightmetric.com and we'll get you the particulars.

Worst Title Fight Ever?

We've got the full stats up for the title fight between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites, but check out a post we did at Bloody Elbow for an answer to the question: Was this the worst title fight in UFC history? There is a suprising amount of competition for the (dis)honor.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Check Us Out in the UFC 100 Magazine

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Why Won't Judges Call a Round 10-10?

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What Good is Top Position...

Monday, June 15, 2009

Rich Franklin = Nailbiter?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Is Lyoto Machida the Best Fighter in the UFC?

Friday, May 15, 2009

Seeking Volunteers for Beta-Test

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Worst Title Fight Ever?

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