Fight Facts: UFC Fight Night 154
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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 5,187
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 482
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday made its debut in South Carolina with an action-packed card at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville. UFC Fight Night 154 featured one of the fastest knockouts in company history, a rare bonus given to an opening fight and a thrilling top contender who always puts on a show for the fans.
WELCOME BACK ZOMBIE: Chan Sung Jung starched Renato Carneiro in less than a minute to earn his third first-round finish at featherweight. Jung ties four other fighters for the fifth-most stoppages in the opening round in divisional history, trailing Chad Mendes with five and Conor McGregor, Diego Brandao and Godofredo Castro with four each.
HIDE YO BRAINS: “The Korean Zombie” became the first UFC featherweight to ever pick up multiple sub-minute finishes, as he previously dispatched Mark Hominick in seven seconds at UFC 140 in 2011.
THE KOREAN ZOMBONUS: After winning a “Performance of the Night” bonus for putting out “Moicano,” Jung has racked up seven post-fight bonuses in his seven Octagon appearances.
SO I WITHER AND RENDER MYSELF HELPLESS: In February, Bryan Barberena engaged in an instant “Fight of the Year” contender with Vicente Luque, only to get knocked out with six seconds left in the contest. He made his return to face Randy Brown and suffered another third-round knockout loss. “Bam Bam” became the seventh fighter in UFC history to ever come out on the losing end of back-to-back knockouts in the third round.
CONTACT IN RED SQUARE: In picking up her third win in as many outings, Andrea Lee tied the record for the most wins in the UFC women’s flyweight division’s short history. She shares the record with five other women.
COUNTING DOWN WITH DAN: Dan Ige beat Kevin Aguilar by decision. Across his 12 career wins, Ige holds five submission victories, four decision victories and three knockout victories. Ige has two losses, both by decision, including a loss to Julio Arce in his UFC debut.
STILL HANDSOME: Matt Wiman returned from a lengthy layoff to face Luis Pena, only to lose by knockout. Wiman had not competed since November 2014 at UFC Fight Night 57. As a point of reference, six fighters at this event and 13 of the 38 athletes competing at Bellator 223 had yet to make their pro MMA debuts when “Handsome Matt” last fought.
WHAT A ROZENSTRIKE: By needing just nine seconds to flatten Allen Crowder, Jairzinho Rozenstruik picked up the second-fastest finish in UFC heavyweight history. Only Todd Duffee’s seven-second demolition of Tim Hague at UFC 102 in 2009 came quicker.
NINE OF NINE: Rozenstruik’s nine-second finish is tied with two others as the ninth-fastest stoppage in UFC history.
BIG BAD ‘BIGI BOY’: Still unbeaten at 8-0, Rozenstruik has finished seven of his eight opponents, including six in the first round.
BABY LEGS AND REGULAR LEGS, I’M PROUD OF YOU TWO FOR WORKING TOGETHER: Deron Winn and Eric Spicely engaged in a back-and-forth brawl that earned the pair “Fight of the Night” honors in the opening bout. It was only the 11th curtain-jerker to pick up “Fight of the Night” and the first since 2016.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into UFC Fight Night 154, the UFC had never traveled to South Carolina, Carneiro (16 fights), Barberena (20 fights) and Anderson dos Santos (27 fights) had never lost consecutive bouts and Kevin Aguilar (18 fights) and Eric Spicely (16 fights) had never lost on the scorecards.
WHAT OTHER SONG MAKES SENSE?: “The Korean Zombie” walked out to “Zombie” by The Cranberries, as he has for every one of his UFC outings. He owns a record of 5-2 with the track, and all five of those wins have come by stoppage.
SATURDAY NIGHT IS ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING: Ige elected to walk to the cage accompanied by “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” by Elton John and won a thrilling decision against Aguilar. While Abdul Razak Alhassan walked out to “Circle of Life” at UFC 228 in 2018, Ige is the first recorded fighter to ever walk out to this particular Elton John song.
Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.
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