This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
In the second pay-per-view available exclusively through ESPN+ Jessica Andrade won the strawweight title with a slam knockout over former champion Rose Namajunas. Also on the main card, a pair of up-and-coming prospects knocked off former UFC champions Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo. The following is a by-the-numbers recap that highlights the stats and milestones that stood out on the main card, with stats courtesy of UFCStats.com.
Jessica Andrade slams her way to a title
In a lot of ways, this fight was playing out as Namajunas would have hoped. She was keeping the fight at distance and dominating with her striking. For the fight, she outlanded Andrade 55 to 47 on significant strikes and 50 to 41 on significant strikes at distance. In the first round, Andrade was able to score a takedown, but she could do not appreciable damage before Namajunas returned to her feet.
That was not the case in the second round. Andrade got in deep on a shot, and Namajunas tried to defend by grabbing a Kimura. The Brazilian elevated the champion and brought her down right on her head. Namajunas was out on impact, and Andrade took home the title. This was the first slam knockout in a title fight since Matt Hughes finished Carlos Newton in 2001. Going forward, there are plenty of interesting challenges for the new champion as it seems impossible for anyone to lord over this division at the moment.
For the second-round finish, Andrade earned players on DraftKings 103.5 points. When she is not finishing fights, she is landing extraordinary volume in title fights. Depending on her challengers, she should be an interesting play in upcoming games.
Jared Cannonier sends Anderson Silva a bit closer to retirement
For someone who has made their career partially due to being a dynamic kicker, Silva now has two devastating leg injury losses. There isn't really much to say other than Cannonier landed a well-timed and well-placed leg kick that hurt Silva, scored a knockdown and finished the fight. He landed 17 significant strikes and absorbed eight in the nearly five minute fight.
Even though the victory was somewhat anticlimactic for Cannonier, his performance still came through for players on DFS. Thanks to the first round finish and the knockdown, he earned players 108.5 points, which was tied for the fourth-highest score of the night.
Alexander Volkanovski outlands Jose Aldo for three rounds
Aldo is clearly not the fighter he once was, but this was still a big win for Volkanovski. His victory was based on two key criteria. First, he struck with volume throughout the contest. He attempted 176 significant strikes and 215 total strikes, compared to only 79 significant attempts and 90 total attempts for Aldo. Volkanovski also was overly accurate. He landed 53 percent of his significant attempts, while Aldo only managed to land 36 percent.
While Volkanovski was much more active than Aldo, he wasn't overly active enough to bump his DraftKings score higher than 10th. He finished with 77.5 points, thanks solely to the decision win bonus and 95 landed significant strikes.
Laureano Staropoli used head strikes to defeat Thiago Alves
While the significant strike totals were relatively even, the fighters had divergent choices of target. Alves outlanded Staropoli 58 to 54 overall on significant strikes, but Staropoli had the advantage on significant head strikes 37 to 27. Alves focused a lot of his striking on leg strikes, where he had the advantage 26 to two. In the end, the judges appreciated Staropoli's work much more.
As is often the case in close fights, Staropoli did not light the DraftKings world on fire. He finished with 62 points, which was the lowest score for a winning fighter on the night.
Irene Aldana scores late submission over Bethe Correia
Correia came into this fight as the bigger fighter after badly missing weight. Throughout the first two rounds, she seemed to land the harder strikes, even the totals were fairly close. Through two rounds, Correia had the edge 55 to 52 on significant strikes. However, in the third round, she changed up her strategy and took the bout to the floor. This turned out to be a bad idea, as Aldana used the opportunity to pass to the back and finish the fight via submission.
For the third-round finish, Alanda earned players 89.5 points, which was the ninth-highest score of the night. She was one of three fighters to score a third-round finish on the card.
