Fact Check: UFC Fight Night ‘Mousasi vs. Hall 2’

Brian KnappNov 17, 2016

Gegard Mousasi probably has nightmares about his ill-fated encounter -- at least what he remembers of it -- with Uriah Hall on Sept. 27, 2015.

Mousasi will face the two-time Ring of Combat champion for a second time in the UFC Fight Night 99 main event on Saturday at The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Hall executed one of the most spectacular finishes in Ultimate Fighting Championship history in his first meeting with “The Dreamcatcher,” as he stopped the Dutchman with a spinning back kick to the face, a flying knee and follow-up punches.

A former Dream, Strikeforce and Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder, Mousasi will get back in the cage with the wind from a three-fight winning streak at his back. The 31-year-old last competed at UFC 204 on Oct. 8, when he disposed of Vitor Belfort with second-round punches in Manchester, England. Mousasi boasts 33 finishes among his 40 career victories, a staggering 29 of them inside one round.

Meanwhile, Hall, 32, has dropped back-to-back bouts since he upset Mousasi. “The Ultimate Fighter 17” finalist last appeared at UFC Fight Night 94 on Sept. 17, when he was on the receiving end of a first-round technical knockout from Derek Brunson at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. Hall, who trains out of the Xtreme Couture camp in Las Vegas, has never lost three fights in a row.

With the Mousasi-Hall rematch as the centerpiece, here are 10 facts surrounding UFC Fight Night 99:

FACT 1: “The Ultimate Fighter 9” winner Ross Pearson has fought in seven different countries: Wales, England, the United States, Australia, Brazil, Sweden and Scotland.

FACT 2: Alexander Volkov is one of three men to have held the Bellator MMA heavyweight championship. Cole Konrad and Vitaly Minakov are the others.

FACT 3: The five fighters who have defeated Ian McCall -- John Lineker, Joseph Benavidez, Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz and Charlie Valencia -- own a cumulative 111-21-1 record.

FACT 4: Stevie Ray has eight submissions to his credit: three by rear-naked choke, one by armbar, one by triangle armbar, one by arm-triangle choke, one by heel hook and one by brabo choke.

FACT 5: Ali Bagautinov is a two-time combat sambo world champion and four-time combat sambo national champion in Russia.

FACT 6: A Bellator and Legacy Fighting Championship alum, Abdul Razak Alhassan has needed a grand total of 5:38 to carve through his first six professional opponents.

FACT 7: Heavyweight Timothy Johnson was a two-time NCAA All-American wrestler at Minnesota State University Moorhead, the same Division II institution that produced former pro wrestling star Nikita Koloff, legendary college football announcer Larry Munson, actor Kevin Sorbo and UFC veteran Chris Tuchscherer.

FACT 8: All 15 of Magomed Mustafaev’s pro bouts -- each of his 14 victories and his only defeat -- have concluded inside two rounds.

FACT 9: Unbeaten promotional newcomer Kwan Ho Kwak has already captured titles in the Top Fighting Championship and Pacific Xtreme Combat organizations.

FACT 10: Zak Cummings has 43-, 50-, 58-, 87- and 94-second finishes on his resume.