Thiago Santos made the most of his opportunity in a makeshift main event.
Fighting out of his natural weight class, the hard hitting Brazilian earned a third-round stoppage against fellow middleweight Eryk Anders in the evening’s 205-pound main event at UFC Fight Night 137 in Sao Paulo on Saturday. Both fighters gave it their all for 15 minutes, but ultimately Anders was unable to make it back to his corner following the conclusion of the third stanza. Santos has now won six of his last seven in the Octagon. The bout was originally booked as a 205-pound encounter between Jimi Manuwa and Glover Teixeira before both fighters pulled out of the card due to injuries.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC Fight Night 137, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
68: Significant strikes by which Santos outlanded Anders during their 15 minutes in the Octagon together. “Marreta” outlanded his foe 19 to 6 in round one, 27 to 12 in round two and 54 to 14 in round three. Santos also held a 115-to-34 advantage in total strikes.
25: Significant body shots landed by Santos. By comparison, Anders landed just five. The Brazilian also outlanded his foe 10-to-1 in leg kicks and 46-to-6 in significant clinch strikes.
.650: Significant striking accuracy for Santos, who landed 100 of 152 attempts. Anders landed 32 of 67 significant strikes, a 47 percent success rate.
6: Takedowns landed in 10 attempts for Anders. The former University of Alabama linebacker landed six takedowns combined in his first four UFC appearances.
7: Finishes via knockout, technical knockout or submission among nine UFC triumphs for Alex Oliveira. The Brazilian “Cowboy” put away Carlo Pedersoli with a TKO win just 39 seconds into the opening round of the welterweight co-main event.
9: Unofficial media scorecards, of the 14 tracked by MMADecisions.com, that scored the strawweight fight between Marina Rodriguez and Randa Markos in favor of Rodriguez. Three media members scored it a draw, while two others had it for Markos. Meanwhile, cageside judges Derek Cleary and Hallison Pontes both submitted 28-28 scorecards, rendering the contest a majority draw.
11: Submission victories for Charles Oliveira in the Octagon. With his tapout of Christos Giagos, “Do Bronx” moved past the legendary Royce Gracie and into sole possession of first place for most submission wins in UFC history. The breakdown: Oliveira has won UFC bouts via armbar (one), rear-naked choke (three), guillotine choke (four), anaconda choke (one), triangle choke (one) and calf slicer (one).
111: Significant strikes landed by former Bellator heavyweight Augusto Sakai in his Octagon debut. By comparison, opponent Chase Sherman landed 79. Sakai outlanded his foe 60 to 24 in round three en route to a stoppage at the 4:03 mark of the period.
8-1-1: Record in his last 10 UFC appearances for Sergio Moraes, who bolstered his record with an arm-triangle choke submission of Ben Saunders in Sao Paulo. The 36-year-old Brazilian’s only loss during that time came at the hands of Kamaru Usman at UFC Fight Night 116 in September 2017.
13: Middleweight victories in UFC competition for Thales Leites, tying him with Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami for the third most in the history of the division. Only Michael Bisping (16) and Anderson Silva (14) have more victories at 185 pounds. Leites took a unanimous verdict over former Bellator champ Hector Lombard in his retirement bout.
21: Appearances at middleweight for Leites, fourth most among UFC competitors in the history of the division.
4:08:53: Total fight time for Leites, the second most in UFC middleweight history behind only Bisping (5:15:15).
20: Career submission attempts for Leites, the most of any UFC middleweight. Kendall Grove is No. 17 at 185 pounds with 17 attempts.
6: Consecutive victories for Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, tying him with Colby Covington, Leon Edwards and Santiago Ponzinibbio for the second-longest active winning streak in the welterweight division. Kamaru Usman has the longest streak with eight straight wins. Dos Santos scored a second-round TKO of the debuting Luigi Vendramini on Saturday night.
1:21: Official time of Livinha Renata Souza’s guillotine choke win over Alex Chambers in their preliminary strawweight bout, giving the debuting Brazilian the fastest submission in the history of the division. Maryna Moroz previously held the record for her armbar submission of Joanne Calderwood 1:30 into the opening stanza of their UFC Fight Night 64 bout.
3: UFC cards with 14 or more bouts. Saturday’s offering from Sao Paulo joins April’s UFC on Fox 29 card (14) and UFC 2 (15) as the most fight-populated cards in promotion history.
2: Fighters who presumably had their final mixed martial arts appearance, as both Thales Leites and Evan Dunham called it a career following their bouts on Saturday. The end came very differently for both, as Leites earned a split decision victory, while Dunham suffered a second-round knockout defeat.