Magomed
Ankalaev got the closure he needed.
After their first meeting this past October ended prematurely due
to an illegal knee, Ankalaev put
Johnny
Walker away in emphatic fashion at
UFC Fight Night 234, winning via second-round knockout at the
UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Shortly after his victory,
the Dagestani standout called for a light heavyweight title shot.
While his resume is undeniably impressive, it remains to be seen if
he’ll get his wish.
For now, here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 234, with
statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
12: Unbeaten streak for Ankalaev, the fourth-longest in the UFC
behind
Jon
Jones (19),
Leon
Edwards (13) and
Islam
Makhachev (13). The only blemishes on Ankalaev’s record since
2018 are a draw against
Jan
Blachowicz at UFC 282 and the aforementioned no contest vs.
Walker at UFC 294.
6: KO/TKO victories in UFC competition for Ankalaev, tying him with
Glover
Teixeira,
Rashad
Evans,
Thiago
Silva and
Ovince St.
Preux for fourth most in the history of the light heavyweight
division.
39: Significant strikes landed by Ankalaev. Of those, 25 were to
the legs of his opponent. Walker landed 24 significant strikes — 19
to the legs.
26: Career UFC triumphs for
Jim Miller,
the most of anyone in the Las Vegas-based promotion. “A-10” tapped
Gabriel
Benitez with a face crank in the third round of their co-main
event clash at lightweight.
Andrei
Arlovski and
Donald
Cerrone are tied for second with 23 career UFC wins.
12: Submission wins in UFC competition for Miller, who passed
Demian
Maia for sole possession of second place on the promotion’s
all-time list behind
Charles
Oliveira (16).
18: UFC finishes for Miller, also No. 2 behind Oliveira (20).
48: Career submission attempts for Miller, well ahead of Oliveira
(40) for No. 1 in promotion history.
43: UFC appearances for Miller after Saturday night. That ranks No.
1 in promotion history. The New Jersey native shared Saturday’s
card with Arlovski, who comes in second with 41 bouts.
6: Consecutive victories for
Mario
Bautista, the second-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s
bantamweight division behind
Merab
Dvalishvili (11). Bautista took a unanimous decision over
Ricky
Simon in a featured bout on Saturday.
112: Significant strikes landed by Bautista. By comparison, Simon
landed 45. Bautista got stronger as the fight progressed,
outlanding his foe 18 to 9 in Round 1, 38 to 21 in Round 2 and 56
to 15 in Round 3.
2: Takedowns landed in 13 attempts for Simon, who was only able to
secure 3:00 of control time in defeat.
11: Finishes among 11 professional victories for
Brunno
Ferreira, who stopped
Phil Hawes
4:55 into Round 1 of their middleweight clash. Nine of those
triumphs have come inside of a round for “The Hulk.”
1-4: Record for Hawes in his last five UFC appearances. The once
highly-regarded prospect has lost all four of those fights via
first-round KO/TKO.
7: Takedowns landed in 11 attempts for
Preston
Parsons in a three-round verdict over
Matthew
Semelsberger at welterweight. After failing to land a takedown
in his UFC debut, Parsons has landed a combined 14 takedowns in his
last three outings.
0: Knockdowns for Semelsberger, who had seven in his previous four
UFC bouts.
3: Knockdowns in as many UFC appearances for
Marcus
McGhee, who dropped
Gaston
Bolanos in the second frame before securing a stoppage at the
3:29 mark of the period. “The Maniac” has finished all three of his
Octagon foes inside of two rounds.
5: Takedowns landed in 16 attempts by
Farid
Basharat in a unanimous decision triumph against
Taylor
Lapilus at bantamweight. Basharat has landed at least two
takedowns in all three of his UFC appearances thus far.
.690: Significant striking accuracy for
Jean Silva
(25 of 36) in a first-round technical knockout victory over
Westin
Wilson at featherweight. Silva also scored a knockdown en route
to his ninth career triumph via KO or TKO.
131: Total strikes landed by
Joshua Van
during the second round of his flyweight bout against
Felipe
Bunes. That’s the sixth most in a single round for a flyweight
bout in UFC history. By comparison, Bunes landed 28. Van shook off
a slow start to defeat his Brazilian foe via technical knockout at
the 4:31 mark of Round 2. Van also held a 69-to-21 advantage in
significant strikes in the period.