This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
UFC Fight Night 123 turned out to be a pretty solid evening of fights. In the main event, Brian Ortega scored a comeback submission after struggling in the striking exchanges against Cub Swanson. 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 FightMetric.com.
For DraftKings, the highest possible score was 592.5 for a team composed of Marlon Moraes, Davi Ramos, Scott Holtzman, Andre Soukhamthath, Trevin Giles and Ortega. Moraes finished with the highest score of the night with 113.5.
Brian Ortega pulled out another comeback against Cub Swanson
Ortega was able to pull out another finish after falling behind Swanson. As impressive as his run of finishes has been, falling behind his opponents will eventually catch up to him. In his last two fights, Ortega has been outlanded 169 to 89 on significant strikes. He has only landed more significant strikes than his opponent once in his UFC career. Before getting caught in the submission, Swanson was dominating the striking. He landed 7.17 significant strikes per minute at 61 percent. Ortega will need to improve his striking defense as he faces tougher and tougher competition.
Prior to the submission, Ortega was not putting up many fantasy points. Thanks to the 70-point second-round finish bonus he finished with 82 points, with the extra 12 points coming from his 24 significant strikes.
Gabriel Benitez took Jason Knight out of his game early
Knight came out with his normal aggression. However, Benitez was quickly able to stifle that and take him out of his game. Benitez forced Knight to miss 81 percent of his significant strike attempts, which is the worst accuracy of his UFC career. On the offensive end, Benitez's tactical approach was very effective. He landed 5.67 significant strikes per minute at 44 percent.
Benitez finished with 75.5 DraftKings points based on 85 significant strikes, one pass and the decision bonus.
Marlon Moraes made quick work of Aljamain Sterling
This was a quick and devastating performance for Moraes. He was able to score a pair of knockdowns and finish the fight in a little over a minute It is the second fastest finish of his career since he joined World Series of Fighting behind only his 32-second win over Carson Beebe at WSOF 6.
Thanks to a pair of knockdowns, Moraes finished with the highest score of the night. His 113.5 score was composed of seven significant strikes, two knockdowns and the first-round finish bonus.
Scott Holtzman landed strikes in every position versus Darrell Horcher
During this fight, Holtzman was able to score from every position. 49 percent of his significant strikes came on the ground, but he also landed 24 percent at distance and 27 percent in the clinch. Thanks to his wrestling game, he was able to spend large parts of this fight on the ground. He landed seven takedowns and passed guard five times.
Holtzman's all around attack led him to the third highest score of the night. He finished with 104.5 DraftKings points based on 49 significant strikes, five passes on the ground, seven takedowns and the 30-point decision bonus.
Eryk Anders turned it on in the later rounds against Markus Perez
Anders dominated this fight from start to finish, but perhaps the most impressive aspect of the fight was how he wore down Perez over the course of the bout. In the final round, Andres outlanded Perez 40 to nine on total strikes and 24 to three on significant strikes. For the fight overall, Anders landed 5.27 significant strikes per minute, which is solid volume for a 15-minute fight.
On DraftKings Anders finished with 88.5 points. He landed 79 significant strikes, three passes and two takedowns on his way to a decision victory.
Benito Lopez edged Albert Morales for a decision victory
From a stats perspective, this fight was about as close as possible. Both fighters finished with 78 significant strikes. Per StrikeScore, a stat that measures striking efficiency, Lopez slightly edges Morales 105 to 95. However, to the trained observer, Lopez certainly deserved the nod. He scored the better strikes throughout the fight and scored a decision victory in his UFC debut.
Lopez's DraftKings score got a bit of a lift from a knockdown in the first round. He finished with 82 points on the night.
