Fight Facts Retrospective 5: The UFC on Fox Era
Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
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Total number of Fox Fights: 365
Fight Facts Retrospective is a branch of the Fight Facts series that chronicles the accomplishments and achievements of legendary fighters and significant events. With the Fox era coming to a close with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a seven-year relationship concludes as the UFC looks to move forward to ESPN. This piece will focus on the UFC on Fox events specifically, and will also study the bouts airing solely on Fox.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: The first fight broadcast on
Fox took place at UFC on Fox 1 in November 2011 between Cain
Velasquez and Junior dos
Santos for the heavyweight title. Dos Santos won by knockout in
64 seconds on a broadcast that lasted one hour.
WELL ACTUALLY… : The first fight shown on any Fox network took place at UFC 37.5 in 2002 airing on Fox Sports Net, where Robbie Lawler knocked out Steve Berger in the second round. That bout was the first in MMA history shown on American cable television.
FINAL BATTLE: The final fight held on the Fox network itself was between Al Iaquinta and Kevin Lee, with the two engaging in a battle that earned Iaquinta a post-fight bonus for his decision win over Lee. The final fight on any Fox channel will be at UFC 232 between heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Walt Harris, who headline the Fox Sports 1 preliminary card that night.
BEFORE AND AFTER: Prior to the first card airing on Fox in 2011, the UFC had put on 1,772 fights in exactly 16 years. Over the last seven years of that deal, the UFC has aired 3,168 (plus 13 at UFC 232) fights.
A GRAND EXPANSION: Currently, the UFC holds 12 different weight classes for male and female fighters. Prior to the Fox deal, the UFC held only seven weight classes, with no women’s divisions or flyweights. Those newer divisions headlined seven of the 31 Fox cards.
Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Before UFC on Fox 1, the champions of the UFC’s seven weight classes were Cain Velasquez, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz. None of them are current champions, although Jones has the ability to earn his belt back before the Fox era officially ends at UFC 232.
WIND RESISTANT: The UFC held the most events in the city of Chicago, Illinois throughout UFC on Fox history (5). They appeared once every year at the United Center from 2012-2016 for an event airing on Fox, and went to no other city more than three times (Orlando, Florida).
GIMME A MULLIGAN: Although the UFC on Fox relationship started with a champion losing his belt, the remaining eight championship bouts at these events over the years all displayed champions successfully defending their belts.
THAT’S SURPRISING: The finish rate of UFC on Fox events ended at 49%, lower than the promotional average by almost six percentage points. Meanwhile, the finish rate of the bouts that took place exclusively on Fox closed a bit higher at 52.44% but still below the average.
A DOUBLE PLEASURE IS WAITING FOR YOU: Three fighters earned double post-fight bonuses for finishing their opponents at these events -- Joe Lauzon, Scott Jorgensen and Alex Caceres -- all of whom submitted their foes in thrilling performances.
HIP HIP JORGE!: Jorge Masvidal won the most bouts of any fighter to compete on the UFC on Fox events, winning in all five of his appearances.
THE GRIM LEAPER: Makwan Amirkhani scored one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history at UFC on Fox 14 in 2015, when he blasted Andy Ogle with a flying knee and follow-up punches in eight seconds. The finish is still tied for the fifth-fastest knockout in organizational history with three others.
HILLS AND VALLEYS: 13 fighters missed weight across UFC on Fox history, and the first eight fighters to miss weight all lost. The final five fighters to come in heavy all won their bouts.
Only on Fox
164 bouts aired exclusively on the Fox network, from all 31 main cards and 11 preliminary cards. Of those, 120 took place on their respective main cards. These statistics are a subset of the 365 fights spanning UFC on Fox events.NO PERFORMANCE ANXIETY: Five fighters competed on Fox at least three times and went undefeated: Anthony Johnson, Demetrious Johnson, Benson Henderson, Glover Teixeira and Rafael dos Anjos.
PREMIUM PACKAGE: Of the 95 bonuses awarded throughout these Fox events, 61 were given to fights that aired on Fox itself (64.2%), including 53 on the main card (55.8%).
FANTASTIC MR. FOX: Headlining four UFC on Fox events, Demetrious Johnson went undefeated and held records on Fox for the most title fights, wins and championship wins, main events, post-fight bonuses and flyweight appearances.
FOX SMASHER: Anthony Johnson competed three times on Fox, winning all three by first round knockout over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alexander Gustafsson and Ryan Bader. He was the only fighter on Fox to finish three opponents, and each of those victories earned him a “Performance of the Night” bonus.
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL: Anthony Johnson’s knockout of Nogueira was the fastest finish in Fox history, demolishing his Brazilian foe in 44 seconds with hellacious uppercuts at UFC on Fox 12 in 2014.
FRESH IN OUR MEMORY: Charles Oliveira’s 75 second rear-naked choke of Jim Miller at the final UFC on Fox 31 event marked the fastest submission win seen on Fox.
THERE’S NO MERCY IN THIS DOJO: The latest stoppage on Fox took place at UFC on Fox 8, when Demetrious Johnson defended his flyweight belt against John Moraga with a fifth-round armbar at 3:43. That win still stands as the fourth latest stoppage in UFC history.
DO IT FOR MY FANS: Appearing the most on Fox were Donald Cerrone, Miller and Nate Diaz, who all competed five times on the network, with each going 2-3. With 31 UFC bouts for Miller and 29 for Cerrone, the two are among the most active fighters in promotional history.
WITH ALL THOSE PEOPLE WATCHING: Cerrone was stopped three times on Fox, the most of any fighter. All three came by strikes, losing by knockout to Anthony Pettis, dos Anjos and Masvidal.
MORE NEVER IS ENOUGH: Two fighters went winless over three bouts on Fox -- Mike Perry and Tecia Torres -- who both suffered all of those losses by unanimous decision.
Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.
