This article is part of our Fight Stat Wrap series.
The UFC returned for the first time in 2018 with UFC Fight Night 124. In the main event, Jeremy Stephens continued his career resurgence with a second-round knockout over Doo Ho Choi. 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.
Jeremy Stephens stormed back in the second to stop Doo Ho Choi
Things were going Choi's way in the first round. He landed 30 significant strikes at a 52 percent clip. He also managed to avoid 70 percent of Stephens' significant strike attempts. Despite the early success for "The Korean Superboy," the second round was another story. Choi continued to be accurate, but his defense fell off. Stephens landed 27 significant strikes at a 45 percent success rate. He also landed a knockdown and finish the fight. In his last two fights, Stephens has landed 3.98 knockdowns per 15 minutes, which is borderline ridiculous at this level of competition.
Stephens finished with 104.5 DraftKings points based on 49 significant strikes, a knockdown and the second-round finish bonus. His score was the third highest for the night, and he has one of only four finishes on the card.
Jessica-Rose Clark took the fight to the ground to best Paige VanZant
Clark pulled out the win in this fight with her grappling. She landed two of her three takedown attempts and passed guard four times on the ground. VanZant broke her arm in the first round of the fight, but it is hard to know if that was the determining factor. In this fight, she landed 54 significant strikes with 14 coming in either the clinch or on the ground. In order to be successful, VanZant needs to do a lot more work in the clinch. In her UFC career, she was averaged 44.25 significant clinch/ground strikes in her victories and only 8.67 in her losses. Her transition into a distance striker has not yielded results outside of her win over Bec Rawlings.
Thanks to her grappling, Clark earned players 84.5 points in DraftKings. She scored with four passes, two takedowns, a reversal and 55 landed significant strikes.
Kamaru Usman's wrestling was too much for Emil Weber Meek
Usman set a new career high for takedowns in this fight. Going into UFC Fight Night 124, he had never landed more than six takedowns in a UFC fight. Against Meek, he landed eight takedowns. Outside of his grappling, there really is not much to say about this fight. Against fighters who he outwrestle, he will look great. Eventually he will need to expand his game.
Usman had the second highest DraftKings score of the night. Despite going to decision, he still landed eight takedowns, seven passes and 50 significant strikes. In a lot of ways, Meek's desperation and drive to get back to his feet resulted in a higher score for Usman.
Darren Elkins pulled off another come-from-behind win against Michael Johnson
It is hard to express just how far ahead Johnson was in this fight after the first round. He outlanded Elkins 43 to 15 on significant strikes. He landed 45 percent of his attempts, while forcing Elkins to miss 75 percent of his attempts. However, the second round was all Elkins. He landed his only first takedown of the fight early in the round. From there he moved to the back and finished via submission. In his last three fights, Elkins has been outlanded 174 to 116 on significant strikes combined, and he has managed to win all three of those fights.
Elkins finished with exactly 90 DraftKings points. The majority of his points came from the 70-point second-round finish bonus, but he also scored points for 18 significant strikes, two passes and one takedown.
