Stat-magnates FightMetric released UFC 129 reports for Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields and Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick. The breakdown:
- The most interesting piece of data from the main event? Jake Shields landed more strikes in the fight (96-92) than Georges St. Pierre. St. Pierre, however, held the advantage in Significant Strikes (85-78), head strikes (54-40), and power strikes (30-8).
- Why does FightMetric award round four to St. Pierre, despite Shields having the advantage in Significant Strikes (14-13)? First, FightMetric's definition of a Significant Strike is "all strikes at distance and power strikes in the clinch and on the ground." Significant Strikes is a useful stat, but it's important to look at the strike breakdown. St. Pierre landed more to the head (11-7) and more power shots (5-3). GSP also completed a takedown, while Shields failed in his two attempts.
- Speaking of takedowns, St. Pierre was successful twice in three attempts. Shields went 0-for-6. If that number seems high, keep in mind that FightMetric counts each yank on a single-leg as a separate attempt. I have yet to rewatch the fight, so I'm not sure how many of those six attempts belonged to a single sequence.
- St. Pierre racked up 311 points in FightMetric's Effectiveness Score algorithm. For context, he scored 357 against Josh Koscheck, 553 against Dan Hardy, 395 against Thiago Alves, 331 against B.J. Penn (through 4 rounds), and 814 against Jon Fitch,
- In the co-main event, we have another challenger outlanding the champion, and still losing the decision. Mark Hominick outlanded featherweight champion Jose Aldo in total strikes (147-131), strikes to the head (112-107), and strikes to the body (31-7).
- Unfortunately for him, most of that disparity came in the fifth round, a round where Aldo landed all of 3 strikes to Hominick's 62. Despite Aldo's futility (he did receive credit for a guillotine attempt as well), it was not enough to award Hominick a 10-8 round.
- FightMetric did award Aldo a 10-8 in round one. He outlanded Hominick in Total Strikes (36-14), Significant Strikes (25-4), strikes to the head (27-12), and power strikes (22-0). Aldo also completed two takedowns in the round.
- Power strikes were the big differences in the fight. Aldo outlanded Hominick in the category 76-31. FightMetric credited him with a knockdown in round four.
- John McCarthy became only the second referee to officiate 200 bouts in the UFC Octagon. He joins Herb Dean (244) in the exclusive club. Mario Yamasaki (163) and Steve Mazzagatti (158) are the closest to admission.
- Going back to the main event, Georges St. Pierre became the first fighter in UFC history to record 2000 total strikes in the UFC. He reclaims the top spot from Jon Fitch (1973). The closest fighter to Fitch is B.J. Penn with 1516 strikes.
- You can now catch FightMetric box scores in USA Today. It's a feature they've run since UFC 128, but just now got around to announcing. Also note that the strikes category is Significant Strikes, not Total Strikes.