With the ninth season of Bellator MMA concluding this past Friday thanks to a well-placed body punch from Alexander Shlemenko, it’s fair to assume that Bellator has more than enough history and data to be the source of a relevant review of all the trends and statistics that have accumulated throughout the organization’s first four and half years.
Thanks to websites like Sherdog.com and MixedMartialArts.com that do a remarkable job of tracking events and the records of fighters, I have analyzed every single Bellator MMA event and accumulated a multitude of statistics such as the average length of a fight in a particular weight class, the frequency of various types of submissions, and much more.
So without further ado, here were my findings.
Fight Statistics
– 991 fights have taken place in Bellator history.
– 8.98% of those fights were in the heavyweight division.
– 7.16% of those fights were in the light heavyweight division.
– 13.93% of those fights were in the middleweight division.
– 14.73% of those fights were in the welterweight division.
– 16.04% of those fights were in the lightweight division.
– 14.93% of those fights were in the featherweight division.
– 8.98% of those fights were in the bantamweight division
– .3% of those fights were in the flyweight division.
– .3% of those fights were in the women’s featherweight division.
– .2% of those fights were in the women’s bantamweight division.
– .5% of those fights were in the women’s flyweight division.
– 1.72% of those fights were in the women’s strawweight division.
– 10.9% of those fights were catchweight bouts.
Average Length of Fights and how they ended:
– Heavyweight: 6 minutes and 50 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 57.65%, submission at a rate of 16.47%, decision at a rate of 24.71%, no contest at a rate of 1.18%, and disqualification 1.18%.
– Light heavyweight: 7 minutes and 17 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 44.12%, submission at a rate of 26.47%, decision at a rate of 26.47%, no contest at a rate of 1.47%, and disqualification at a rate of 1.47%.
– Middleweight: 8 minutes and 35 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 31.85%, submission at a rate of 31.11%, decision at a rate of 36.3%, and disqualification at a rate of .74%.
– Welterweight: 9 minutes and 46 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 29.29%, submission at a rate of 27.14%, decision at a rate of 42.86%, and no contest at a rate of .71%.
– Lightweight: 9 minutes and 6 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 25.5%, submission at a rate of 37.58%, and decision at a rate of 36.91%.
– Featherweight: 9 minutes and 3 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 27.67%, submission at a rate of 34.04%, and decision at a rate of 38.30%
– Bantamweight: 11 minutes and 13 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 18.6%, submission at a rate of 26.74%, and decision at a rate of 54.65%.
– Flyweight: 2 minutes and 29 seconds. Flyweight fights have ended by way of submission at a rate of 33% and decision at a rate of 66%.
– Women’s featherweight: 5 minutes and 56 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 66% and decision at a rate of 33%.
– Women’s Bantamweight: 11 minutes and 31 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 50% and decision at a rate of 50%.
– Women’s Flyweight: 8 minutes and 53 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 20%, submission at a rate of 40%, and decision at a rate of 40%.
– Women’s Strawweight: 10 minute and 44 seconds. They have ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 12.57%, submission at a rate of 25%, and decision at rate of 62.5%.
– Catchweight: 8 minutes and 28 seconds. They ended by way of KO/TKO at a rate of 32.7%, submission at a rate of 34.58%, and decision at a rate of 32.7%.
Most wins by division
– Heavyweight: Cole Konrad (7)
– Light Heavyweight: Attila Vegh and Emanuel Newton (5)
– Middleweight: Alexander Shlemenko (10)
– Welterweight: Ben Askren (9)
– Lightweight: Michael Chandler (9)
– Featherweight: Patricio Freire (9)
– Bantamweight:Zach Makovsky (6)
– Strawweight: Jessica Aguilar (5)
Quickest Victories:
– Knockout: Hector Lombard knocked out Jay Silva in six seconds at Bellator 18
– Submission: Aaron Johnson submitted Brennan Ward in 15 seconds with an arm-bar at Bellator 89.
Tournament Statistics (Total Number of Tournaments per Weight Class)
– Welterweight (8)
– Featherweight (8)
– Lightweight (7)
– Middleweight (6)
– Heavyweight (5)
– Bantamweight (5)
– Light Heavyweight (4)
– Women’s Strawweight (1)
Tournament Winners by country
– United States (24)
– Brazil (8)
– Russia (7)
– France (2)
– Congo (1)
– Cuba (1)
– Slovakia (1)
Referee Statistics
The top ten most popular [officiated the most fights] referees inside the Bellator cage were
1. Jason Herzog
2. Dan Mirgaliotta
3. Keith Peterson
4. Troy Waugh
5. Kerry Hatley
6. Kevin MacDonald
7. Jorge Alonso
8. Kevin Nix
9. Myron Gaudet
10. John McCarthy
Misc. Stats:
– 54 fighters have gone to compete in the UFC or The Ultimate Fighter after fighting in Bellator.
– Bellator has signed 86 different fighters that have had either UFC or Ultimate Fighter experience.
– 7 fighters that competed in the inaugural season are still on the Bellator roster (Eddie – Alvarez, Bryan Baker, Joey Beltran, Chas Skelly, Justin Torrey, Saad Awad, and Jesse Juarez).
If you have any questions about any of the content in this piece, you can contact me through e-mail at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielGal