This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
The UFC returned to Brazil for UFC Fight Night 119. In the main event, Derek Brunson picked up an impressive first-round knockout over a former champion. Also on the main card, Colby Covington picked up the biggest win of his career to inch closer to a welterweight title shot. 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 644 points for a team composed of Marcelo Golm, Thiago Santos, Vicente Luque, Pedro Munhoz, Derek Brunson and Jared Gordon. In the first fight of the night, Golm scored the highest score of the night with 118.5 points.
Derek Brunson made quick work of Lyoto Machida
Brunson needed only 10 significant strikes to put away the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. The former All-American wrestler has certainly evolved into a boom-or-bust power striker in MMA. In his UFC career, he has scored six knockouts. In those fights, he has needed to land only an average of 13.83 strikes to earn those knockouts. Unfortunately in fights where he has not scored a first-round knockout, Brunson has been outlanded 196 to 165 on significant strikes and has gone 3-3.
For DFS players, Brunson might have won it too quickly. He earned players 105 DraftKings points, which was only good enough for sixth best on a night full of knockouts and finishes.
Colby Covington attempted 21.13 significant strikes per minute against Demian Maia
Covington really turned up his striking volume in this fight. Prior to this bout, he had averaged 5.23 significant strike attempts per minute and had never attempted more than 9.4 per minute in a fight. Against Maia, he attempted 21.13 significant strike attempts. While Covington only landed 27 percent of his significant strikes, his volume allowed him to land 88 significant strikes. The continuous attempts also forced Maia to avoid and attempt counters, which likely contributed to his exhaustion in the third round.
While Maia did have his moments in the striking game, he simply needs to gets the fight to the ground to be successful. Recently this has been a struggle. After going 4-for-12 on takedown attempts against Jorge Masvidal, Maia has gone 0-for-34 against Tyron Woodley and Covington combined.
While this was a huge win for Covington, he did not really light it up in terms of fantasy. He scored players only 74 DraftKings points composed of the 88 significant strikes and the 30-point decision win bonus.
Pedro Munhoz forced Rob Font into submission game with strikes
Munhoz has now picked up guillotine-choke submissions in three of his last four bouts. In all three fights, he was behind in terms of significant strikes when he scored the submission. Against Font, Munhoz landed only 20 significant strikes while absorbing 30. However, he forced Font to shoot for a takedown with a hard left hook. That takedown attempt set up the submission.
After coming in as an underdog, Munhoz finished with 108 DraftKings points, which was good enough for fifth best on the night.
Jim Miller started strong and faded against Francisco Trinaldo
Miller had a solid first round. In the opening frame, he landed 15 significant strikes at 62 percent and landed a takedown. However, as the fight went on and he began to fatigue, his accuracy dropped to 33 percent in round two and 35 percent in round three. Trinaldo's accuracy actually increased over the course of the fight as he went from 40 percent in the first round to 52 percent in the final round.
If this is the end for Miller, he leaves behind a career full of solid accomplishments. He reached as high as the No. 5 lightweight in the Fight Matrix rankings in April 2011. At the time, he had just defeated Kamal Shalorus at UFC 128 to improve to 20-2 overall with wins over Duane Ludwig, Mac Danzig and Gleison Tibau.
Trinaldo earned players 72.5 DraftKings points based on 63 significant strikes, two passes, a takedown and the decision win bonus.
Thiago Santos picked up another knockout over Jack Hermansson
Santos beat the buzzer and finished Hermansson with a second left in the first round. With his seventh knockout victory, he tied with Michael Bisping and Chris Leben for the second most knockout wins at middleweight behind only Anderson Silva. In the UFC, Santos has landed a knockout for every 37.71 landed significant strikes.
Santos nearly missed out on putting up the biggest score of the night. His 114 DraftKings points were second on the night behind only Golm, who had 118.5.
John Lineker attacked the body against Marlon Vera
Lineker throws a lot more body shots than most fighters. Against Vera he landed 43 percent (33 of his 77) of significant strikes to the body, which is the third-highest percentage of his career. Since moving up to bantamweight, Lineker has regularly been at a reach disadvantage. However, since he throws to the body so much, he can still remain an effective power puncher.
DFS players who added Lineker to their lineups were most likely looking for the knockout. Unfortunately, the knockout never came and he finished with only 68.5 DraftKings points.
