FightMetric Scores for UFC 118: Penn vs. Edgar II

Need any more proof how dominant Frankie Edgar was against B.J. Penn at UFC 118? Ya, us neither, but FightMetric.com has released their score for Penn vs. Edgar II, and the results are pretty telling.

Leger: Frankie Edgar (FE), B.J. Penn (BP), Total Strikes (TS), Significant Strikes (SS), Takedowns/ Attempts (TD/ATT), Fight Metric Effectiveness (EFF), Ten-Point Must System (Score)

	FE TS	BP TS	FE SS	BP SS	FE TD/ATT	BP TD/ATT	FE EFF	BP EFF	SCORE
ROUND 1	9	20	8	8	2/3	0/0	41	52	10-9 BP
ROUND 2	18	8	18	6	1/3	0/0	56	39	10-9 FE
ROUND 3	31	14	30	12	0/3	0/0	121	31	10-9 FE
ROUND 4	32	8	16	6	0/0	1/1	80	47	10-9 FE
ROUND 5	52	6	22	4	0/0	1/2	86	33	10-9 FE
TOTAL	142	56	94	36	3/9	2/3	385	203	49-46 FE

What does this tell us? Well, besides from the first round (which FightMetric actually scored for Penn), Edgar owned a significant advantage in the striking department. This makes it even more obvious that Penn came in with the wrong game plan. If Penn had looked for takedowns in the opening rounds, he very well have reclaimed the championship belt. At very least, the fight would have been much closer than it ultimately was. Congrats again to Frankie Edgar, who put on a display for the ages last Saturday.

FightMetric Scores for Strikeforce: Houston

FightMetric.com has released their report for Saturday's Strikeforce middleweight championship fight between Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Tim Kennedy, and the results show just how close the fight was, at least statistically.

Leger: Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (RJ), Tim Kennedy (TK), Total Strikes (TS), Significant Strikes (SS), Takedowns/ Attempts (TD/ATT), Fight Metric Effectiveness (EFF), Ten-Point Must System (Score)

	TK TS	RJ TS	TK SS	RJ SS	TK TD/ATT	RJ TD/ATT	TK EFF	RJ EFF	SCORE
ROUND 1	9	15	9	15	0/0	0/0	42	95	10-9 RS
ROUND 2	11	9	11	8	0/1	0/1	57	54	10-10
ROUND 3	19	19	7	7	1/2	0/0	59	64	10-9 RS
ROUND 4	14	5	0	0	0/1	0/1	35	20	10-9 TK
ROUND 5	16	12	16	12	1/2	0/1	77	71	10-9 TK
TOTAL	69	69	48	47	2/6	0/3	270	303	48-48 DRAW

The hard part of using statistics in MMA is that the numbers are not as cut and dry as they are in other sports.  When a baseball player hits 40 home runs, you know he hit 40 home runs. In MMA, just because fighter A lands more strikes than fighter B, fighter A doesn't win the fight every time.

This is the case for "Jacare," who we scored winning the fifth round 10-9 despite being outlanded 16-12 and giving up a takedown. We scored it as such because the punches "Jacare" appeared to be more damaging. So while looking at numbers are helpful, they don't always tell the whole story.

FightMetric is an awesome tool, but it is also important not to take statistics at face value.

FightMetric Scores for WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez

If you're not familiar with FightMetric.com, it's a nifty system that breaks down MMA fights using statistics. FightMetric has released their data for two fights from last night's "WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez."

Leger: Total Strikes (TS), Significant Strikes (SS), Takedowns/ Attempts (TD/ATT), Fight Metric Effectiveness (EFF), Ten-Point Must System (Score)

First up, the fight of the night bout between Scotty Jorgensen (SJ) and Brad Pickett (BP):

	SJ TS	BP TS	SJ SS	BP SS	SJ TD/ATT	BP TD/ATT	SJ EFF	BP EFF	SCORE
ROUND 1	27	17	24	16	1/2	0/2	122	122	10-10
ROUND 2	43	18	36	17	0/3	0/2	174	95	10-9 SJ
ROUND 3	34	16	23	12	3/3	0/0	127	93	10-9 SJ
TOTAL	104	51	84	45	4/8	0/4	423	310	30-28 SJ

Pickett was also credited for a guillotine attempt in Round 1. That 10-10 score shows just how close that first round (which we scored 10-9 Jorgensen by a hair) really was.

Next, the rematch between champion Dominick Cruz (DC) and challenger Joseph Benavidez (JB):

	DC TS	JB TS	DC SS	JB SS	DC TD/ATT	JB TD/ATT	DC EFF	JB EFF	SCORE
ROUND 1	29	15	17	8	1/2	0/0	51	44	10-9 DC
ROUND 2	19	12	12	11	0/0	0/4	56	39	10-9 DC
ROUND 3	14	11	11	10	1/2	0/4	41	22	10-9 DC
ROUND 4	26	1	0	0	2/2	0/2	56	40	10-9 DC
ROUND 5	15	7	14	5	1/2	0/1	54	34	10-9 DC
TOTAL	103	46	58	35	5/8	0/11	262	179	50-45 DC

Benavidez was also credited with a guillotine attempt in Round 4. Overall, it's a credit to Cruz's defense that Benavidez was not able to finish any of his 11 takedown attempts and only landed a paltry 46 total strikes (including just ONE in Round 4).