The Rarest Feat in MMA: Chasing the Elusive Perfect UFC Card
This past Saturday, the UFC held its fourth fight card in Paris, France: UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Borralho. The event delivered on multiple levels.
The arena appeared nearly full even during the early prelims, and the atmosphere resembled that of a passionate European football crowd. Fans chanted relentlessly, creating such a roar that, at times, it was difficult to hear the commentators. At one point they even remarked on the deafening noise.
The event began with an impressive streak of seven consecutive finishes, only two of which went beyond the first round. The main card added four more stoppages, bringing the total to eleven finishes consisting of eight KO/TKO’s, two submissions, and two decisions. This amounted to a 84.62% finish rate.
That number brought to mind the rare instances in the promotion’s history where events featured only finishes – the combat sports equivalent of a perfect game in baseball. Such occurrences are so uncommon that merely mentioning the possibility of a 100% finish rate feels like tempting fate.
From No Decisions to History-Making Nights: How the UFC’s Evolution Made Perfection Nearly Impossible
In the early days, fights were not allowed to go to a decision. The rules stated that a bout continued until someone tapped out or was knocked out. A corner was also allowed to throw in the towel; however, this was rare. This led legendary referee Big John McCarthy to request permission from the promotion to stop fights on his own, as many cornermen feared losing their jobs if they ended a fight prematurely. As a result, the first few events – UFC 1, UFC 2, and UFC 4 – had 100% finish rates.
With the introduction of referee stoppages, what would come to be known as a “Perfect Card” became one of the rarest feats. The modern era officially began on November 19, 2000. Since then, there have been 719 UFC fight cards, and only two of them have been Perfect Cards. UFC Fight Night 55: Rockhold vs. Bisping was the first, back in 2014. Most recently, In 2022 at UFC on ESPN: Santos vs Hill joined the list, when Jamahal Hill secured the card’s place in history with a fourth-round finish over then-contender Thiago Santos. That’s approximately 0.27% of all modern-era. Only comparable to a perfect game in MLB, which has been around for almost 150 years but has only seen 24 such games.
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