When the UFC stacked the fight card for the historic first event in New York City, it did so by selecting more than a few talented strikers from its roster to ensure the event sees some fireworks. As we'll see, the names of these fighters are among the primary reasons fans will be tuning into the night's events. Let's take a closer look at the offensive striking metrics for the fighters on the card -- and see which fighters excel in their standup game, and specifically how they excel.
How the graph works
This balloon (or bubble) chart includes the fighters competing this weekend with sufficient sample size. Many of these figures will move with more cage time, but it's a good snapshot of how they've performed to date.
The four metrics in the graph are all related to offensive striking. First, the vertical axis is the power head striking accuracy. This is a general reflection of a striker's skill level in technique. Some fighters are more aggressive than others, while some are primarily counter-strikers; those characteristics lead to very different striking styles. The horizontal axis indicates the ratio of strike attempts while standing compared to that specific fighter's opponents throughout their career. It's a measure of output, and a proxy for aggression. An even 1.0 ratio means a fighter matches the pace of their opponents when standing and trading, while a higher number shows more aggressive and higher-volume strikers compared to lower ratios, which indicate counter-strikers.
The dots are plotted based on those two metrics, but two additional variables are also shown on this chart. The size of the bubble is based on the fighter's Knockdown Rate in all of their UFC, Strikeforce and WEC fights. Bigger bubbles mean a lot more power, while the small specks indicate fighters who haven't logged a distance knockdown in recorded competition. Lastly, southpaw/switch stance strikers are in red. Unorthodox strikers are rare, but are worth highlighting, as some fighters have trouble with Southpaws.
click to enlargeSnipers
Highest on the graph, Conor McGregor leads the pack as the most accurate power striker at UFC 205, landing 42 percent of his power head strikes from a distance. Impressively, he has achieved this while using a high mix of head kicks instead of just punches, which typically lowers a fighter's accuracy.
Another UFC champion and event marquee fighter, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, comes in close behind at 40 percent. Like McGregor, Joanna Champion excels with precision despite using an aggressive striking style that might normally lower overall accuracy.
Cuban wrestler Yoel Romero may have the most noteworthy Olympic credentials on the card, but surprisingly he has avoided putting them to use so far in the UFC. Instead of wrestling, he has opted stand and trade with opponents, and has enjoyed remarkable success with his hands.
High-pressure strikers
Jedrzejczyk isn't just an accurate and technical striker, she puts on a blistering pace. She's averaging over 19 standup strike attempts per minute while at a distance, and she's nearly doubled the pace of opponents by throwing 83 percent more total volume. However, she has only the second-highest striking output on the card, because her opponent Karolina Kowalkiewicz averages 21 attempts per minute. That's all the more reason to expect a barnburner in the strawweight championship bout.
In addition to Kowalkiewicz, welterweight title challenger Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson has also vastly outworked his opponents while trading leather. That's because Thompson's long-range movement and skilled kicking attacks have stymied his opponents to date. However, it's worth noting that his opponent, Tyron Woodley, will have the best wrestling credentials of anyone that Thompson has ever faced.
Sluggers
Woodley, the new welterweight champ, is the punch-for-punch hardest hitter on the card, and secured his new belt in an appropriately hard hitting manner. Woodley is the first fighter to win a welterweight title fight in the early rounds in nearly a decade, in a division that has seen more than its share of decisions when the belt is on the line. It will be interesting to see if he chooses to stand and trade with Wonderboy -- whether he'll count on power to trump precision and pace, or if we will see an early dose of wrestling.
Another welterweight comes in a distant second, and that's Donald Cerrone. Despite lagging behind Woodley on the stat line, Cerrone makes up for it with pure volume of career knockdowns scored -- currently at 17 total since his days in the WEC, and six more than the next-highest total on the card (Alves, 11). Cerrone will try to test the sturdy chin of Kelvin Gastelum on the main card.
Keeping it on the ground
Khabib Nurmagomedov is arguably the most effective wrestler on the card. He typically chooses to keep fights on the ground, as he's absolutely dominated opponents while there. That suits Nurmagomedov well, given that he has not demonstrated very accurate or well-paced power striking thus far. In facing a more skilled striker in Michael Johnson, he'll have to stick to his bread and butter to ensure the fights stays in the position that favors his style.