Fight Facts: KSW 50

.@phildefriesmma conects! #KSW50 pic.twitter.com/IoThTk2qNQ

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) September 14, 2019

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW FIGHTS: 477
TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW EVENTS: 56

KSW on Saturday in London staged its 50th numbered event with a show where several belts were on the line. KSW 50 featured a couple of unusual split decisions, the final fight of an organizational legend’s career and the first strawweight fight in over four years.

NO NEED TO OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS: The first two split decisions in KSW championship history occurred at this event, the first by Norman Parke over Marcin Wrzosek for the interim lightweight strap and the second when Philip De Fries edged Luis Henrique Barbosa de Oliveira in a battle over the heavyweight throne.

SLOWING THINGS WAY DOWN: After De Fries’ decision over Tomasz Narkun at KSW 47 in February, he went on to beat Oliveira by split verdict at this event. Prior to those two bouts, the first eight title fights in KSW heavyweight history ended by stoppage within the first two rounds.

OUT OF THE DE FRYING PAN, INTO DE FIRE: By recording his third successful title defense, De Fries tied Karol Bedorf for the most defenses by a heavyweight champion in KSW history.

TOMASZ TERRIFIC: After successfully defending his light heavyweight crown for the fourth time, Narkun tied Michal Materla and Borys Mankowski for the most consecutive title defenses in company history.

MORE LIKE ROBOCOP 2: Roberto Soldic needed three full rounds to defeat Michal Pietrzak, earning just his second decision victory in 17 career wins. “Robocop” saw each of his previous 11 fights end by knockout, win or lose.

STORMIN’ TO THE JUDGES’ TABLE: In capturing a split scorecard from the judges, Parke earned the interim lightweight belt and his fourth decision win under the KSW banner. Only current two-division champion Mateusz Gamrot (five) holds more decision victories in the lightweight division.

HE SAID THE SECRET WORD!: Although 12 fighters have previously tapped to strikes inside the promotion, none had ever submitted to them verbally -- until Tony Giles did so against Damian Janikowski.

NOT TRYING TO PILE ON HERE: Coming into his KSW debut, Giles celebrated a record of 6-1. Upon closer examination, his seven his previous opponents had combined for a 3-48 mark. Janikowski (3-2) was the first fighter “Rhino” had ever faced with a winning record.

SAD WAY TO GO OUT: After dropping a controversial decision to Jason Radcliffe, Antoni Chmielewski retired. The winner of the KSW 2 and KSW 3 tournaments, Chmielewski hangs up his gloves while tied for the fifth-most wins inside the KSW cage (13). He also has the most losses (eight).

I FORGOT MORE ABOUT FIGHTING THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW: Chmielewski made his promotional debut at KSW 2 in October 2004. Out of the 15 other fighters on KSW 50, only Przemyslaw Mysiala had already made his pro debut at that time.

WELCOME BACK STRAWS: Aleksandra Rola stopped Catherine Costigan with strikes in the second round of their strawweight encounter, earning the first knockout in the division’s history. It was the promotion’s first fight in that weight class since KSW 30 in 2015, when Karolina Kowalkiewicz edged Kalindra Faria in a “Fight of the Night”-winning battle.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into KSW 50, three fighters (Oliveira, Parke and Wrzosek) had never competed beyond the third round, Radcliffe had never gone the distance (22 fights) and Costigan had never been knocked out (eight fights).

Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.