On Saturday night (Oct. 8), UFC 136 will invade the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, with a fight card packed full of exciting match-ups.
In the main event, Gray Maynard will look to finally "bully" his way to a win over Frankie Edgar and take home the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight belt that he's worked for his entire life. Edgar will look to do the "Jersey Shore" proud by defending his strap, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind who is the better man.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) fans are sure to have their favorites already picked out, whether it be to make a quick buck or to win a "sig bet."
You probably think you know who will be walking away a champion after the dust has settled. You might be basing your opinion on a gut feeling. Maybe you've even gone as far as to dig up some fight footage and make a more educated guess.
The fine folks at CompuStrike have put together some of these aforementioned numbers in relation to Saturday night's main event. We're not saying don't trust your gut. Just check out the cold, hard facts before you do.
Let's look at where each fighter spends the majority of their time during their respective UFC fights (on average):
Frankie Edgar Total Fight Time - Standing: 101:03 | Ground: 80:25
Gray Maynard Total Fight Time - Standing: 87:04 | Ground: 42:24
As the numbers reveal, the time differential in which Edgar's fights have been spent standing and on the canvas is much more proportional than that of Maynard's.
Maynard is one of an ever-growing number of wrestlers who actually prefer to stand and trade hands.
Speaking of which, let's examine how both fighters have fared in their overall striking exchanges. Here are the percentages for "Total Strikes Landed:"
Maynard: 53%
Edgar: 50%
Pretty close.
How about diversity of strikes? We got you covered on that statistic as well. Here are the percentage of arm strikes landed:
Edgar: 41%
Maynard: 39%
Again, razor thin.
When looking at the percentage of kicks landed, we see the gap widen a bit, in favor of the challenger. However, it should be noted that Maynard's sampling size is much smaller. (Maynard has only thrown a total of four kicks in his UFC career, according to CompuStrike.)
Maynard: 75%
Edgar: 59%
It's almost certain that this fight will get to the mat at some point. Who has the striking advantage in this scenario? Here is each fighter's percentage of strikes landed while on the ground:
Maynard: 83%
Edgar: 66%
The last time these two tangoed, the takedown played a major role. Here's the success rate for each fighter, in regard to their UFC takedown attempts:
Maynard: 27-for-42 -- 64%
Edgar: 38-for-69 -- 55%
We can see that Edgar has scored more takedowns during his career, but Maynard is more effective from a percentage standpoint.
The numbers would appear to tilt in Maynard's favor. But you kinda knew that already, didn't you? He's clearly bigger and stronger. Will it matter?
Your turn to geek out, Maniacs. Get out your pocket protectors and protractors and tell who you've got!
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