Fight Facts: UFC on ESPN 71 ‘Taira vs. Park’

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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 UFC FIGHTS: 8,296
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 742

The Ultimate Fighting Championship put forth an offering at the UFC Apex that fans turned their nose up at, only for it to deliver more than once in stupendous fashion. Not one but two “Fight of the Year” candidates blew the roof off the newly reconstructed facility by night’s end. UFC on ESPN 71, also known as UFC Vegas 108, featured busted bodies littered across the Octagon, a seemingly easy crank and yet another gutsy comeback performance for a grizzled veteran.

Headbanger’s Delight: At night’s end, two matches earned “Fight of the Night” for their stellar back-and-forth action. This is the first event since UFC 236 in 2019 where a pair of bouts picked up matching FOTNs.

Jump Park Place: Dispatching Hyun Sung Park in the second round, Tatsuro Taira made good on the opponent switch and bounced back from his first career defeat. The 25-year-old from Japan has performed just over three-quarters of his wins inside the distance.

They Called It Right: Park submitted to a face crank from Taira. His is officially the second face crank in a UFC headliner, with the first coming nearly a year ago when Dricus Du Plessis wrangled Israel Adesanya at UFC 305.

Chasing the Cannibal: Taira’s finish of Park is his fifth as a UFC flyweight. This puts him tied with John Moraga with the sixth-most all time. They all trail champ Alexandre Pantoja’s eight.

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Just Bleeeeeeeeeeed: When the dust settled in their thrilling battle, Chris Duncan took home the decision over teammate Mateusz Rebecki. With the former connecting with 92 significant strikes and the latter landing 114, both exceeded their personal bests in the Octagon by at least 10 apiece.

Stand Up and Shout: Esteban Ribovics outdueled Elves Brener en route to a spectacular decision. Both 155ers scored exactly 123 total strikes on one other after 15 minutes of combat.

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That Kind of Fighter: Getting her hand raised by decision over Nora Cornolle, Karol Rosa has now alternated wins and losses in her last nine outings. She has gone to the scorecards in all 12 of her UFC bouts.

HOFA on the Horizon: Neil Magny pulled off the comeback to finish Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos in the second stanza. The veteran has now earned 23 wins in the Octagon, tying him with Andrei Arlovski, Donald Cerrone, Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway for the second-most in company history. Jim Miller’s 27 hold serve as No. 1.

Methodically Effective: With 22 victories in UFC welterweight competition—one fight was a catchweight when opponent Johny Hendricks missed weight—Magny further pads his lead. The next closest active fighters are Kamaru Usman and Vicente Luque at 16 apiece.

U23 Champ What What: Rinya Nakamura flattened Nathan Fletcher in 62 seconds to rebound from his first pro loss. He becomes the fourth bantamweight in UFC history to notch two wins in under 90 seconds, joining Iuri Alcantara, Marlon Moraes and Said Nurmagomedov—the latter of whom did that thrice.

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Outstriking Gore at That: Rodolfo Vieira needed all 15 minutes to get past Tresean Gore, settling for a unanimous verdict in his favor. It marked the first time he had ever needed the judges to win a fight.

Chopping the Mullet: Crushing Nick Klein with a body kick and follow-up shots, Andrey Pulyaev earned his first win inside the Octagon. The Russian boosted his finish rate to 80% with the stoppage.

Bashed, Bro: To put newcomer John Yannis away, Austin Bashi performed a rear-naked choke on him in the opening frame. The 23-year-old has notched finishes in each of his last six wins, with five of those by this maneuver.


Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC on ESPN 71, Park had never been defeated (10 fights), Rebecki had never lost on the scorecards (22 fights) and Klein had never dropped consecutive bouts (eight fights).

I’m Useless but Not for Long: Making his walk to the cage accompanied by “Clint Eastwood” by the virtual band Gorillaz, Felipe Bunes came up short to Rafael Estevam. He is the second recorded fighter to pick a tune from the group created by Damon Albarn. Dan Ige in 2022 was the first, going with “Dirty Harry” and losing as well.