Jackson’s MMA fighters less, not more decisions than UFC average
Mark Twain famously wrote “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Numbers however can also reveal…
Mark Twain famously wrote “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Numbers however can also reveal unrecognized truths. For example in the best seller Freakonomics, University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt demonstrates that many Sumo matches were fixed. The 2011 Grand tournament in Tokyo was cancelled for the first time since 1946, because of allegations of match fixing.
In the Head Kick Legend Numbers for Nerds weekly series, statistics are employed to test various parts of the mixed martial arts gospel. Last weeks installment on title shot earning win streaks can be found here.
The weeks the series examines Jackson’s MMA. There are two thngs that everyone says of Jackson’s. First that Greg Jackson is the best coach in MMA, and secondly that Jackson’s MMA fighter play it safe.
The numbers tell a more complicated story.
As of September 2007, Jackson’s fighters were winning 81% of the time. Today, his fight team has a lifetime winning percentage of 71%, taking into accont team wins and losses in the UFC and WEC only.
In the past two years Jackson’s gym has won 62% of the time out, with a record of 52-30-2. If you took away Jon Jones and Georges St. Pierre, they would be a very pedestrian 51%.
If Jackson advocates doing the bare minimum to get the decision, you would expect to see his fighter’s go to decision more often than everyone else in the UFC.
Of fights involving a Jackson’s fighter, 58% of the time the fight was finished inside the distance. During the same stretch, 52% of all UFC fights were finished inside the distance. Of those fights that were stopped, Jackson’s was on the winning side 67% of the time (33-16).
The camp had a 57% victory percentage in fights that went to decision over the past two years,
The evidence does not support the view that Jackson favors a safe fighting style, at least not over the past two years. Jackson’s fighters not only finish fights more often than the average UFC fighter, they lose more often by finish than they do by decision.
As for the notion that Jackson is a master game planner? There isn’t much there to support that either. His fighters are winning decisions more often than they are losing them, but certainly not by much.