UFC 328 sees rare occurrence: two fighters lose title fights despite 8+ takedowns

At UFC 328, a rare event occurred twice when fighters who completed 8 or more takedowns in title fights still lost their bouts. Historically, fighters completing 5+ takedowns in UFC title fights win 81% of the time, and those with 7+ takedowns win 83% of the time. Chimaev and Tairov completed 9 and 8 takedowns respectively but both lost. Tairov had good takedowns with full ground control and nearly 11 minutes of control time, yet was still broken and finished. The analysis suggests that while elite wrestlers maintain an 80% win probability, total versatility remains superior as wrestling is energy-intensive and highly dependent on health conditions, weight cutting, and other circumstances.