Fight Facts: UFC 2021, a Year in Review

I Bet, You Bet, We All Bet

Fairer Than Bellator: Four-hundred and seventy-seven UFC matches this year, courtesy of 5dimes, closed with betting odds featuring a favorite and an underdog. A whole 65.8% of those favored prevailed, slightly down from last year’s 66.8%. The 32 pick-‘ems did end higher than 2020, but less than 2019’s of 35.

Upset of the Year: Pena’s shocking +700 upset victory over -1100 Nunes came in as the second-greatest underdog prevailing in UFC championship history. T.J. Dillashaw at +710 against Renan Barao (-910) marked the most substantial title upset in terms of the underdog’s betting line.

None Could Compare: Pena closed with the biggest upset of the year by a wide margin, as only one other favorite above -500 fell short in 2021: Makhmud Muradov, whose -525 line fell to pieces when +415 Gerald Meerschaert submitted him.

Three Tried, One Cried: A trio of competitors this last year came in favored at -1000 or above: O’Malley (-1000) against Kris Moutinho, Nunes (-1100) against Pena and Shevchenko (-1250) against Murphy. Only Nunes suffered defeat.

Rehashed but Still Useful: Of the 23 betting favorites closing at a minimum of -500, 21 had their hands raised at their respective night’s end. The aforementioned Nunes and Muradov are the lone massive favorites to fall short in 2021, while Arman Tsarukyan and Montel Jackson both doubled up on this category.

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Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board

The Heavier Are Getting Smarter: When not counting fights scratched due to botched weight cuts, 2021 featured 32 bouts where a fighter missed weight – the same number as 2020. Fifteen of those 32 prevailed, with that .469 win percentage far higher than previous years for heavy competitors.

Shame and Hilarity: When Justin Tafa hit the scales at UFC Fight Night 199 at 267 pounds, he officially became the first heavyweight in UFC history to miss weight. A past super heavyweight tilt came at UFC 28 between Josh Barnett and Gan McGee, and heavyweight bouts prior to that had had no weight cap.

A Heavy Event: Chiasson pushed the featherweight limit and weighed 148.5 pounds also at UFC Fight Night 199, where she became the first female featherweight to ever miss weight. Unlike Tafa, Chiasson lost that night.

Losing In Every Way: Maxim Grishin’s 4.5 pound weight miss as a light heavyweight at UFC Fight Night 186 came in as the year’s most egregious weigh-in failure, of the bouts that remained intact. He ended up losing a decision to Jacoby.

Win Bonus Minus Fine Equals Profit: Excluding heavyweight matchups, three different athletes weighed at least five pounds more than their opponents on the scales: Grishin, Jared Gordon and Irene Aldana. Grishin was the only one to suffer a loss with that weight advantage in their favor.

Less Meaning, Same Great Taste: Far fewer than 2020 but still more than most other years, four different intentionally scheduled catchweight fights took place throughout the year. All four at least reached the midpoint of the second round.

Plus Aspen Ladd: Nine different women missed the mark officially throughout 2021, and just three of them prevailed on fight night. Of the 192 women that weighed in and still fought, this results in a weight miss rate of 4.69%.

Unexpected Professionalism: Twenty-three different men had issues formally making weight while making it to the Octagon the next day. This weigh-in failure percentage of 2.78% is substantially lower than women, and also less than many years prior.

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Same Old Song and Dance

Finally Stopped: “Can’t Stop” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers did not take the top spot this year for the most frequently used walkout song, as it did in 2020. That honor goes to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold,” which played in arenas seven times throughout the year, preceding five triumphs.

Ambitious Choices: Both “Ambitionz As a Ridah” by 2Pac (4-2) and “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony (3-3) came up six times throughout the year, tying for the second-most heard walkout tune this year.

Strangling the Competition: Partly thanks to the sheer number of uses, “Stranglehold” claimed the top spot as the winningest UFC track in 2021. Six different tracks, surprisingly including AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” came in with the second-highest win totals of four each.

Take Another Highway: No single song accompanied more than three defeats throughout the year, but 10 different songs did have the selecting fighter lose on three separate occasions, including "Vivir Mi Vida” and “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC.

Notoriously Prevalent: Leading the pack with 18 tracks either by Notorious B.I.G. or featuring the fallen rap icon, Biggie’s voice echoed through arenas this year more times than that of any other musician. Fighters using Notorious B.I.G. music fell hard this year, with a win percentage of just .333. Others with at least 15 uses include Drake (15), AC/DC and 50 Cent (16 each) and 2Pac (17).

Winning With 50: 50 Cent won out 2021 as the artist that accompanied the most victories inside the Octagon, with nine. 2Pac and AC/DC each came up one short with eight apiece, and Meek Mill along with Notorious B.I.G. preceded seven UFC wins.

Awareness of the Curse Spreads: With only six different uses of Eminem songs throughout the year, fighters ended their year accompanied by Eminem with a combined win percentage of .333. No Eminem track played more than once in 2021.

His Real Name is Durk: No UFC fighter that picked a song involving rapper Lil Durk won their fight in 2021. St. Preux, Moutinho, Trevin Jones, Cherant and David Onama all picked music from the Chicago-based hip hop artist, and all five came up short.

555 MILLION Views: Tai Tuivasa made history as the first to select a Spice Girls song when he picked picking “Wannabe” ahead of his UFC 264 rumble with Greg Hardy. The boisterous Aussie knocked Hardy out in 67 seconds and proceeded to drink multiple beers from numerous shoes.

It’s So Quiet: Keeping with his tradition established in 2020, Darren Till opted not to pick any walkout song ahead of his UFC Fight Night 191 matchup against Derek Brunson. None of the three intentionally songless entrances have ended with wins for the fighter involved.