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UFC Leaders - Total Strikes Landed

Posted 11:00 AM
The seventh in our series going through the categories on our UFC Official Records page, this post deals with the record holders for the highest volume of total strikes landed.

What: This volume or "counting" stat is extremely basic, because it doesn't differentiate between any different kinds of strikes. Unlike the leaders for highest volume of significant strikes, this list is far less important to the understanding of MMA. This category seeks to answer the question, "Which fighters have hit their opponents the most?" Because this is a total strikes category, it also includes all the small, short strikes in the clinch and on the ground.

Why: This category is really more of a curiosity than anything else. Including small strikes, whose effectiveness in contributing to fight effectiveness is quite small, makes the list less meaningful. Fighters who land a large number of total strikes are often ones who wage control battles where they pepper their opponents with a large number of mostly ineffective shots. While many of these total strikes are also significant strikes, consider these fighters to be the ones who "keep busy" during their matches.

Who:
RankFighterTotal
1Georges St-Pierre1924
2Jon Fitch1742
3Chris Leben1477
4BJ Penn1468
5Chris Lytle1343
6Randy Couture1332
7Sean Sherk1274
8Tito Ortiz1185
9Nick Diaz1082
10Chael Sonnen1028

Who's Next: Since all the fighters on this list are still active in the UFC besides Nick Diaz, don't expect to see much turnover. The fighters who are next in line are Rich Franklin, Spencer Fisher, and Frank Edgar.

The Breakdown: Like the significant strikes category, this one finds Georges St-Pierre on top. It's a testament to his style of fighting, which is so overwhelming that he leads both. Looking at the other fighters on the significant strikes leaderboard, we also see BJ Penn, Chris Lytle, and Randy Couture here. When you land that many significant strikes, it's no shame to make an appearance here as well.

The remainder of the fighters do not show up on the significant strikes leaderboard, meaning that their striking output leans more toward small strikes than power strikes, at least compared to the likes of St-Pierre, Penn, Couture, and Lytle. A preponderance of smothering ground and clinch fighters makeup the list, none with a style more-derided than Jon Fitch. He shows up at #2 here, while coming in just #17 in significant strikes.

The Takeaway: While total strikes does not give as good an idea of overall fight effectiveness as does significant strikes, it's hard to ignore the success of the fighters on this list. We see five current or former UFC champions and two more in Fitch and Sonnen who are near the top of their division. It seems that more than anything else, this category rewards longevity in the UFC and busy-ness above all else.

See reports for these fighters