At the gym today, a few of us had an argument as to what was the most common end to a fight...submission, KO/TKO, or decision? I argued that it was KOs, a couple said submissions, and there are a few on the fence. I honestly didn't know what the answer was so when I got home, I decided to find out. What was originally intended to be a simple poll of the last few events turned into an activity of gathering data from the past UFC events since 2005! Anyways, enough yammering, here are my results...
The following is an aggregation of all of the UFC events from 2005 until the time of this post. That starts at UFC 51 which took place in February of 2005 all the way up until UFC 96 that just happened a couple of weeks ago. Also, I only count the big shows, i.e. I don't count the TUF Finale's, or Ultimate Fight Nights either. So, all-in-all, this data spans 46 events, and over 400 fights.
Overall Wins by Type
Summary
This simple graph answers the big question: what is the most common type of win in the UFC? At least since 2005, KOs and TKOs take the cake with over 40% of fights ending with knockout stoppages. Surprisingly though, decision wins came second, beating out submission wins by almost 10%!
Win Type by Weight Class
Summary
How to read this graph: each color is a weight class, and the three groupings separate the different types of wins. So, looking at the chart, we can see that middleweights do the most submissions contributing roughly 27% of all submissions, and light-heavyweights contribute the most to KOs and TKOs at 27% and 24% respectively. And, surprisingly (at least to me), lightweights and welterweights were the biggest contributors to decisions! I didn't expect that...
Win Types over Time by Event
Summary
Finally, I created this last graph in the hopes that I could see some trends in win-types over time. I do see a sharp dip in decision wins, with an equally sharp rise in knockout wins right at the end. Overall, it does seem a little sporadic though. However, I can see a more consistent, gradual decrease in submission wins starting around UFC 85. I'm no statistician so these are all just hunches to me. You can make your own conclusions...
There you have it. If you've ever wondered to yourself these same questions, then hopefully you've found your answers. Some of these results definitely surprised me, but then again, you can't really argue with the numbers. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to share!
*During this whole process, I've gathered some really interesting data, more than necessary for this single post. This was just a cursory glance at win-types in the UFC, but I am planning on writing a more in-depth look at similar trends across the same numbers. Until next time.
Charles
