UFC 328 sees rare double occurrence: fighters with 8+ takedowns both lose title bouts

At UFC 328, a rare statistical anomaly occurred twice on the same card when fighters who completed eight or more takedowns in title fights both lost their bouts. Historically in the UFC, fighters who land five or more takedowns in title fights win 81.08 percent of the time, and those with seven or more takedowns win 83 percent of the time. Khamzat Chimaev and Tatsuro Taira completed nine and eight takedowns respectively but both suffered defeats. Taira's takedowns were particularly high-quality with full positions and nearly 11 minutes of control time, yet he was still finished. The analysis suggests this demonstrates that while elite-level wrestling maintains roughly 80 percent success odds, total well-rounded skill sets remain superior, as wrestling is energy-intensive and highly dependent on weight cut, health, and circumstances.