Statistical Analysis: All UFC 2017 Fights

[acannxr]

Note: I excluded fights that ended in No Contest.

Division Activity (descending order):
71 fights | Welterweight
67 fights | Lightweight
53 fights | Middleweight
46 fights | Featherweight
41 fights | Bantamweight
38 fights | Light Heavyweight
36 fights | Heavyweight
34 fights | Women's Strawweight
29 fights | Men's Flyweight
15 fights | Women's Bantamweight
11 fights | Women's Flyweight*
03 fights | Women's Featherweight

444 fights | Total
*The inaugural champion was crowned on December 1, 2017.

Knockout Percentage (descending order):
52.8% | Heavyweight
50.0% | Light Heavyweight
45.3% | Middleweight
32.8% | Lightweight
31.0% | Welterweight
30.4% | Featherweight
24.4% | Bantamweight
20.7% | Flyweight
05.9% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Submission Percentage (descending order):
27.6% | Flyweight
22.0% | Bantamweight
20.9% | Lightweight
17.6% | Women's Strawweight
17.0% | Middleweight
15.8% | Light Heavyweight
15.2% | Featherweight
13.9% | Heavyweight
11.3% | Welterweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Finish Percentage (descending order):
66.7% | Heavyweight
65.8% | Light Heavyweight
62.3% | Middleweight
53.7% | Lightweight
48.3% | Flyweight
46.3% | Bantamweight
45.7% | Featherweight
42.3% | Welterweight
23.5% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Knockout-Type Breakdown:
63.4% | Punch(es)
17.2% | Combination
08.3% | Knee(s)
05.5% | Elbow(s)
03.5% | Doctor/Corner Stoppage/Injury
02.1% | Kick(s)

Submission-Type Breakdown:
45.0% | Rear-Naked Choke
13.8% | Guillotine Choke
12.5% | Armbar
06.3% | Arm-Triangle Choke
03.8% | D'arce Choke
03.8% | Von Flue Choke
03.8% | Anaconda Choke
02.5% | Triangle Choke
02.5% | Kimura
02.5% | North-South Choke
01.3% | Kneebar
01.3% | Calf Slicer

I was personally surprised by:
-How active Women's Strawweight was this last year, and how barren Women's Bantamweight is becoming.
-How high Women's Strawweight was in submission percentages compared to the other divisions.
-Flyweight having a higher finish percentage than four other weight classes.
-Welterweight having the lowest finish percentage of all weight classes.

If anyone wants additional information not written in this post, let me know and I'll include it.

 

[DanaWhitesButler]

Interesting breakdown. I wonder what drives the proportion of fights that happen in each weight class. Star power of the division? The fact that most human beings are of a certain size range (that would explain why welterweight fights happen so frequently. Many fit human beings are 170 lbs). There are probably business reasons, too, that we're not even aware of. Like, maybe they realize flyweight will never draw viewers so they just maintain it at a minimum level so as to prevent Bellator or some other promotion from picking up the fighters and having the best of that division.

 

[fiftywattmafia]

Nice. Good stuff TS.
Conor 2018 fights...oh that’s still at 0.0%

 

[Post 2 Decision]

6% KO rate for the girls oh my lord
And less than 1/4 fights finished, so gross, scrap that shit already

 

[acannxr]

6% KO rate for the girls oh my lord
And less than 1/4 fights finished, so gross, scrap that shit already

There were a total of two punch(es) finishes at Women's Strawweight in 2017; one of them was Namajunas' finish of Joanna. However, Women's Strawweight has the fourth highest submission percentage of all the divisions and more fights last year than all the other women's divisions combined.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

There were a total of two punch(es) finishes at Women's Strawweight in 2017; one of them was Namajunas' finish of Joanna. However, Women's Strawweight has the fourth highest submission percentage of all the divisions and more fights last year than all the other women's divisions combined.

Easy to submit people who don't know how to defend it

 

[MMAFanatic86]

Note: I excluded fights that ended in No Contest.

Division Activity (descending order):
71 fights | Welterweight
67 fights | Lightweight
53 fights | Middleweight
46 fights | Featherweight
41 fights | Bantamweight
38 fights | Light Heavyweight
36 fights | Heavyweight
34 fights | Women's Strawweight
29 fights | Men's Flyweight
15 fights | Women's Bantamweight
11 fights | Women's Flyweight*
03 fights | Women's Featherweight

444 fights | Total
*The inaugural champion was crowned on December 1, 2017.

Knockout Percentage (descending order):
52.8% | Heavyweight
50.0% | Light Heavyweight
45.3% | Middleweight
32.8% | Lightweight
31.0% | Welterweight
30.4% | Featherweight
24.4% | Bantamweight
20.7% | Flyweight
05.9% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Submission Percentage (descending order):
27.6% | Flyweight
22.0% | Bantamweight
20.9% | Lightweight
17.6% | Women's Strawweight
17.0% | Middleweight
15.8% | Light Heavyweight
15.2% | Featherweight
13.9% | Heavyweight
11.3% | Welterweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Finish Percentage (descending order):
66.7% | Heavyweight
65.8% | Light Heavyweight
62.3% | Middleweight
53.7% | Lightweight
48.3% | Flyweight
46.3% | Bantamweight
45.7% | Featherweight
42.3% | Welterweight
23.5% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Knockout-Type Breakdown:
63.4% | Punch(es)
17.2% | Combination
08.3% | Knee(s)
05.5% | Elbow(s)
03.5% | Doctor/Corner Stoppage/Injury
02.1% | Kick(s)

Submission-Type Breakdown:
45.0% | Rear-Naked Choke
13.8% | Guillotine Choke
12.5% | Armbar
06.3% | Arm-Triangle Choke
03.8% | D'arce Choke
03.8% | Von Flue Choke
03.8% | Anaconda Choke
02.5% | Triangle Choke
02.5% | Kimura
02.5% | North-South Choke
01.3% | Kneebar
01.3% | Calf Slicer

I was personally surprised by:
-How active Women's Strawweight was this last year, and how barren Women's Bantamweight is becoming.
-How high Women's Strawweight was in submission percentages compared to the other divisions.
-Flyweight having a higher finish percentage than four other weight classes.
-Welterweight having the lowest finish percentage of all weight classes.

If anyone wants additional information not written in this post, let me know and I'll include it.

No matter how many numbers you throw at us, we'll still bitch about what little WMMA bouts we're forced to sit through.

 

[Melas Chasma]

Seems like WW is the most competitive weightclass in the UFC.

 

[Chad W]

almost 28% submission rate for the FLW division is pretty eye opening

 

[chitoortiz]

Nice. Good stuff TS.
Conor 2018 fights...oh that’s still at 0.0%

Yeah but check out his lifetime title defense rate.......

oh shit that's still at 0.0% too

 

[acannxr]

Interesting breakdown. I wonder what drives the proportion of fights that happen in each weight class. Star power of the division? The fact that most human beings are of a certain size range (that would explain why welterweight fights happen so frequently. Many fit human beings are 170 lbs). There are probably business reasons, too, that we're not even aware of. Like, maybe they realize flyweight will never draw viewers so they just maintain it at a minimum level so as to prevent Bellator or some other promotion from picking up the fighters and having the best of that division.

What's interesting to note is that despite Men's Flyweight having five times the number of ranked fighters than Women's Strawweight, Men's Flyweight still had five less fights than Women's Strawweight. That tells me the UFC isn't putting forth a concerted and genuine effort into recruiting male Flyweights.

 

[MMAFanatic86]

almost 28% submission rate for the FLW division is pretty eye opening

 

[clumseygenius]

Solid dude, cheers. Tagged for a more indepth look later. Respect @acannxr

 

[Franc Mittelo]

Those are only descriptive statistics, you can't make any inferences until you do some statistical tests to prove that the differences in those percentages are statistically significant and not just random chance.

Who has the time to run an ANOVA test to determine whether the means of those groups are different?

 

[cherryzero]

Note: I excluded fights that ended in No Contest.

Division Activity (descending order):
71 fights | Welterweight
67 fights | Lightweight
53 fights | Middleweight
46 fights | Featherweight
41 fights | Bantamweight
38 fights | Light Heavyweight
36 fights | Heavyweight
34 fights | Women's Strawweight
29 fights | Men's Flyweight
15 fights | Women's Bantamweight
11 fights | Women's Flyweight*
03 fights | Women's Featherweight

444 fights | Total
*The inaugural champion was crowned on December 1, 2017.

Knockout Percentage (descending order):
52.8% | Heavyweight
50.0% | Light Heavyweight
45.3% | Middleweight
32.8% | Lightweight
31.0% | Welterweight
30.4% | Featherweight
24.4% | Bantamweight
20.7% | Flyweight
05.9% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Submission Percentage (descending order):
27.6% | Flyweight
22.0% | Bantamweight
20.9% | Lightweight
17.6% | Women's Strawweight
17.0% | Middleweight
15.8% | Light Heavyweight
15.2% | Featherweight
13.9% | Heavyweight
11.3% | Welterweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Finish Percentage (descending order):
66.7% | Heavyweight
65.8% | Light Heavyweight
62.3% | Middleweight
53.7% | Lightweight
48.3% | Flyweight
46.3% | Bantamweight
45.7% | Featherweight
42.3% | Welterweight
23.5% | Women's Strawweight
*Excluded Womens' Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Flyweight due to small sample size.

Knockout-Type Breakdown:
63.4% | Punch(es)
17.2% | Combination
08.3% | Knee(s)
05.5% | Elbow(s)
03.5% | Doctor/Corner Stoppage/Injury
02.1% | Kick(s)

Submission-Type Breakdown:
45.0% | Rear-Naked Choke
13.8% | Guillotine Choke
12.5% | Armbar
06.3% | Arm-Triangle Choke
03.8% | D'arce Choke
03.8% | Von Flue Choke
03.8% | Anaconda Choke
02.5% | Triangle Choke
02.5% | Kimura
02.5% | North-South Choke
01.3% | Kneebar
01.3% | Calf Slicer

I was personally surprised by:
-How active Women's Strawweight was this last year, and how barren Women's Bantamweight is becoming.
-How high Women's Strawweight was in submission percentages compared to the other divisions.
-Flyweight having a higher finish percentage than four other weight classes.
-Welterweight having the lowest finish percentage of all weight classes.

If anyone wants additional information not written in this post, let me know and I'll include it.

That’s really interesting, thanks. If you have the info, I’d be curious to see how many active fighters they have per division, especially in terms of division activity.

 

[8100]

The idea that the UFC is going to add women's FLW is frightening. The other women's divisions are already barren.

 

[acannxr]

There was a total of 8 submissions in the Flyweight division in 2017; Johnson was responsible for 2 of them (25%).

 

[acannxr]

That’s really interesting, thanks. If you have the info, I’d be curious to see how many active fighters they have per division, especially in terms of division activity.

I copied down the result of the bout and what weight class it was contested at (444 fights total); copying down the fighters' names in addition to everything else would've been far more work than I would have wanted to do for something as benign as this.

 

[MMAFanatic86]

There was a total of 8 submissions in the Flyweight division in 2017; Johnson was responsible for 2 of them (25%).

Who were the others?

 

[acannxr]

The idea that the UFC is going to add women's FLW is frightening. The other women's divisions are already barren.

I don't expect Women's Strawweight to lose that much; Women's Bantamweight is dying though.