(Brazilian boy can’t get no love? / Props: enlapelea.com)

Fabio Maldonado should have learned his lesson in his fight against Kyle Kingsbury last June — if the judges refuse to count body punches as “effective damage,” you might as well just start head-hunting and grunting and hope for the best. Once again, the Brazilian light-heavyweight put on a body-shot clinic in his bout against Igor Pokrajac at last night’s UFC event, and once again he wound up with a unanimous decision loss, with one judge inexplicably handing all three rounds to the Croatian. Many observers called this one a robbery, and you can understand why if you look a little closer at the striking totals. According to FightMetric…

- Round 1: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 36-6 in significant strikes, 47-16 overall.

- Round 2: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 26-13 in significant strikes, 60-18 overall.

- Round 3: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 36-17 in significant strikes, 59-30 overall.

- Overall: Maldonado’s success-rate for significant strikes was 72% (98 of 137), compared to 45% for Pokrajac (36 of 80). The final overall striking total was 166-64 in Maldonado’s favor.

(The pink-shirted gangster and the Canadian cover-boy have compiled the two longest win streaks in UFC history. Props: fightworld.com.br)

If Jim Miller can sock away his eighth consecutive UFC victory in August, he’ll become just the seventh fighter in the promotion’s history to accomplish that feat [ed. note: oh well]; Cain Velasquez also has a chance to join the club in November. [ed. note: He didn't, but Junior Dos Santos did.] With that in mind, we figured it would be a good time to publish a stats list of the UFC’s greatest win streaks — both all-time, and ongoing.

For the purposes of these lists, we only included fighters whose UFC win streaks were unbroken by draws or no-contests. However, if a fighter competed for different promotions between stints in the UFC, only the UFC fights are counted. If we’ve accidentally omitted somebody, please let us know in the comments section. And as with our previous stats lists, timelines, and leaderboards, we’ll periodically update this page when there are changes. Now let’s get to the numbers…

Aside from being the decisionest decisioner who ever decisioned, UFC welterweight contender Jon Fitch also holds the record for the most total strikes landed in the Octagon — a staggering 1973, according to the new UFC Official Records page on FightMetric.com. Georges St. Pierre is a close second to Fitch with 1924 total strikes, but comes in first on the “Significant Strikes Landed” leaderboard with 892; Jon Fitch isn’t even in the top ten on that one.

Also surprising: Because of their multiple title fights and frequent decisions, Frank Edgar and Sean Sherk have average fight times of over 15 minutes. Plus, Anderson Silva is just one knockdown away from catching Chuck Liddell’s record of 14 KDs, Cheick Kongo has the fifth-best takedown accuracy in the UFC, and the hardest-to-hit fighter in UFC history isn’t Lyoto Machida or Georges St. Pierre — it’s TUF 4 vet Pete Spratt, who only ate 0.89 shots per minute during his 3-4 stint in the Octagon. (Yes, GSP is currently in second place on that list too.) Check out a few more notable FightMetric charts after the jump, and see the rest right here.

(Apparently, leaving your face open for repeated blows means you’re "dictating the action." Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

So another Leonard Garcia fight is in the books, which means it’s time to ask the judges, once again: Are you guys totally blind, or just legally blind, so that, you know, you can make out shapes and degrees of light, that kind of thing?  

Garcia’s split-decision victory over Nam Phan at Saturday’s TUF 12 Finale elicited immediate chants of "Bullshit!" from the Las Vegas fans, as well as a lengthy anti-NSAC rant from Joe Rogan. Did the judges see something we didn’t? Am I just biased by the fact that Phan is a likable underdog, and Garcia’s striking is an aesthetic nightmare that I can’t stand watching?

Well, no, as it turns out. According to FightMetric’s report on Phan/Garcia, the match should have been scored a 30-27 for Phan based solely on statistical effectiveness. Phan landed more "significant strikes" in every round, with only the first round being close (33-30 significant strikes in Phan’s favor). The second round was an obvious runaway for Phan (34-13 in the s.s. department, with a brief knockdown via side-kick) and the third was also a clear win for Phan (35-21). The only advantage Garcia had was his two takedowns (one apiece in rounds 2 and 3), neither of which led to any real damage.

I always figured that calling MMA "the world’s fastest-growing sport" was mainly a promotional slogan, based more on allegorical evidence than actual numbers. So is the title deserved, or is it hot air? Using data mined from the Simmons Research Database, MMAPayout.com has published a new report breaking down the growth of the UFC in the United States over the past three years, compared to other major sports leagues — as well as information on age and gender demographics. We recommend checking out the whole thing if you have time, but here are some highlights:

– The UFC actually is the fastest-growing sports league in the country, pretty much by default. From 2007-2009, the NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, and MLS (that’s soccer, you guys) actually suffered losses in their fan bases. The NHL’s fan base grew very slightly. By comparison, the UFC increasing their total number of fans by about 14% (and 30% among "avid" fans) seems like a monumental achievement.

(Damn. As if the "Having to Fight GSP" curse wasn’t bad enough… / Image courtesy of fightmagazine.com)

By Jim "jimbonics" Isaacs

So there I was, minding my own business, creating a masterpiece through MSPaint in honor of ReX13’s first Bellator article for the ‘Tater. Later that afternoon, after a WILD week in the comments section across all articles, I was honored with a “Comment of the Week” award and subsequently a subscription to FIGHT! Magazine. Sweet! It was the first thing I had won since a pinball contest in Nineteen Dickety-Two.

After a month of salivating and daily mailbox-checking, I had received no magazine. I was convinced I would not actually receive a prize, as hundreds of comments at CP over the past year alluded to. Then it happened. My mailbox was stuffed with bills I would never open, offers I would never respond to, and an extremely thick and glossy FIGHT! Magazine.

There is King Mo, in all his glory bling, staring at me. The first thought in my head was how he got his ass thoroughly beaten by Mousasi yet still won the belt based solely on takedowns. (Though he snared 11 of his 14 takedown attempts, if there was ever a fight to argue against the weight of takedowns in MMA scoring, it was that fight, but I digress). The second thought in my head was that he wouldn’t hold the belt very long, especially with the ultra-quick striker and BJJ black belt Feijão looming. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

A month later the next magazine had wrestling specialist Kenny Florian on it. He went on to get Gray Maynarded. This got the wheels turning, and I decided to do a little investigating: Does the long-rumored FIGHT! Magazine Cover Curse actually exist?

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

(The moral of the story? When Gina Carano does it, it’s awesome. When Paulo Filho does it, it’s terrible. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Anybody can be forgiven for missing weight by a half-pound — as long as it doesn’t become a habit. But when an MMA fighter comes in a full four pounds heavy, as Efrain Escudero did this week for his doomed UFC Fight Night 22 bout against Charles Oliveira, it tends to raise some eyebrows. As we’ve done previously with steroid busts, we decided to catalog the worst scale-fails in MMA history, arranged by number of pounds over the limit. When the information was available, we also listed the punishments the fighters were given, along with their excuses for missing weight, which range from injuries to salt water to the dreaded “menstrual period.” This is by no means a definitive list — but we’d like it be, eventually. So if you know of any other occasions where fighters missed weight by four pounds or more, or missed weight for multiple fights, please let us know in the comments section.

* Note: We’ve eliminated the “Repeat Offenders” section. In the instances where fighters has notably missed weight on more than one occasion (see: A. Johnson, P. Daley, T. Alves), we’ve ranked them in the leaderboard by their greatest weigh-in failure.

Karl Knothe @ Shark Fights 17
Weigh-in date: 7/14/11
Weight: 253.75 pounds, 23.75 over the 230-pound catchweight limit
How is that even possible? Due to some miscommunication between Knothe and his management, Knothe was never informed that his scheduled bout against Ricco Rodriguez was supposed to be at a catchweight, instead of at heavyweight.
Result: The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation disallowed Knothe from competing due to the large weight-gap and concerns over excessive weight-cutting. Knothe was paid a portion of his salary anyway, while Ricco Rodriguez instead faced 5-12 replacement Doug Williams. Rodriguez won via rear-naked choke in the first round.

Heather Martin @ Freestyle Cage Fighting 46
Weigh-in date: 4/8/11
Weight: 178 pounds, 13 over limit; Martin got down to 173 after two additional attempts
Fight result: Martin’s opponent Amanda Lucas actually withdrew from the fight. As she explained, “This is a professional sport, one I take seriously, and in which I dedicate my life to. To fight someone in [Martin's] condition or to fight someone way beyond the contracted weight is bad for both myself, and women’s MMA.”

(Jon Fitch: Giving fans their money’s worth, in every way possible.)

He may not have reached Antonio McKee levels* yet, but Jon Fitch has certainly attracted an unwanted reputation for taking fights to the scorecards. When he faces Thiago Alves at UFC 117, he has the opportunity to break the record for most decision fights in the Octagon by an active UFC fighter. Check out the list below to see who’s currently leading the UFC in fights that go the distance. As with our performance bonus leaderboard, we’ll update this thing whenever possible; if we’ve missed any names that should be on the list, please let us know in the comments section…

Fighters With 11 Decisions in the UFC
Jon Fitch: 9-1-1 in those fights; last nine fights have gone to decision

Fighters With 10 Decisions in the UFC
Diego Sanchez: 7-3; last three fights have gone to decision
Tyson Griffin: 6-4; last two fights have gone to decision
Tito Ortiz: 5-4-1

("Congrats buddy, here’s your piece of jagged f*cking glass." Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

MMA Junkie reported yesterday that TUF 11 winner Court McGee will return to the Octagon at UFC 121 (October 23rd, Anaheim) against Ryan Jensen. In doing so, the well-bearded Utah native follows a proud tradition of Ultimate Fighter winners who take on middling veterans directly after winning their six-figure contracts, and beat them (most of the time) before eventually dropping in weight (some of the time). As a helpful reference, we decided to put together a timeline of those first post-TUF fights, as well as some relevant statistics. Starting at the beginning…

Season 1 light-heavyweight winner: Forrest Griffin
First post-TUF opponent: Bill Mahood (0-0 in the UFC at the time)
Result: Griffin via submission (rear-naked choke), round 1
Is Mahood still in the UFC? No, the fight against Griffin was Mahood’s only Octagon appearance.
Does Griffin still compete at light-heavyweight? Yes

Season 1 middleweight winner: Diego Sanchez
First post-TUF opponent: Brian Gassaway (0-0 in the UFC at the time)
Result: Sanchez via submission (strikes), round 2
Is Gassaway still in the UFC? No, the fight against Sanchez was Gassaway’s only Octagon appearance.
Does Sanchez still compete at middleweight? No. Sanchez immediately dropped to welterweight after the show, and has spent the majority of his UFC career there.

(Antiperspirant is for pussies, apparently. Photo courtesy of Esquire.)

Though all of the big-money fights scheduled for the spring/summer promise to turn their fortunes around, Zuffa has taken some serious hits lately. First we heard that WEC 47 pulled in a dismal 373,000 viewers, which was their second-smallest audience in two years — not exactly the level of heat you want going into your first pay-per-view card. Now, we hear that UFC 110 is trending at an estimated 215,000-240,000 pay-per-view buys, which follows very disappointing performances by UFC 108 and UFC 109. Sure, we all knew the UFC’s fall/winter injury curse would have fans playing pick-and-choose, but the numbers are straight-up grim. Via BloodyElbow, here’s how the UFC’s pay-per-view cards have performed starting with the high-water mark of UFC 100 last July:

(And he makes it look so easy…)

Chris Lytle‘s $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus at UFC 110 represented his seventh UFC performance bonus in his last eight fights, which made us wonder: Does that make him the #1 bonus-collector on the UFC’s roster? And who else is in the running? So, with the help of the UG and Wikipedia, we compiled a ranking of the UFC’s top performance bonus leaders, based on available information. When possible, we added up the grand totals of the fighters’ pay-bumps, though the amounts of these bonuses weren’t consistently reported before UFC 70.

Fighters With Ten Bonuses
Chris Lytle: 6 Fight of the Night bonuses, 3 Submission of the Night bonuses, 1 Knockout of the Night bonus; $515,000 total (Note: Lytle retired from the UFC after his victory over Dan Hardy at UFC on Versus 5, which scored him a Fight of the Night and a Submission of the Night bonus.)

Fighters With Nine Bonuses:
Nate Diaz: 5 FOTN, 4 SOTN; $445,000 total
Joe Lauzon*: 5 SOTN, 3 FOTN, 1 KOTN

Is steroid use an epidemic in MMA? Or are most of the fighters who have tested positive simply the victims of inept athletic commissions, shady nutritional supplements, and tainted goat meat? After Josh Barnett’s latest chemical misadventure took down Affliction, we decided to round up every steroid bust in the sport since early 2002, when the Nevada State Athletic Commission began testing MMA fighters for performance-enhancing drugs. The results…may shock you.

***

JOSH BARNETT (Pt. 1)
Caught: 4/22/02, following his TKO victory over Randy Couture at UFC 36.
Tested positive for: Boldenone, Nandrolone, and Fluoxymesterone
Punishment: A six-month suspension from the NSAC and the loss of his UFC heavyweight title. Barnett fought the steroid charge, and didn’t compete again in the U.S. until PRIDE 32, four and a half years later. (See: Belfort, Nastula)
In his own words: "I am a fighter, not a lawyer. I am innocent, and I should be fighting right now."
Repeat offender: Barnett actually tested positive once before, for two different anabolic steroids, following his submission via strikes victory over Bobby Hoffman at UFC 34 in November 2001. Josh was let off with a warning (which went unheeded, apparently) and the incident was never officially reported — but according to Sherdog’s Mike Sloan, Barnett’s first positive steroid test is what inspired Nevada to begin regularly testing UFC fighters for performance enhancing drugs.

TIM SYLVIA
Caught: 10/7/03, following his first-round knockout of Gan McGee at UFC 44.
Tested positive for: Stanozolol
Punishment: $10,000 fine and a six-month suspension from the NSAC. Sylvia voluntarily vacated his heavyweight title following his positive steroid test.
In his own words: “[A]fter I fought Ricco [Rodriguez], I was in for a long layoff. I decided to try some things and maybe change my physique a little bit and get in better shape. But whatever I used, it came back positive. I don’t know how that happened. I did it so long ago and I was way off it before I fought McGee. I think they found it in my fat cells. I guess it stays in there for a while, huh?…I heard what Josh [Barnett] had used, so I used something different and I was only using it to trim my physique. I thought that what I was using, it was going to be out by the time I fought McGee. I fought Gan and apparently it wasn’t out.”