Between 2018 and 2024, UFC fighters landed 211 significant strikes, on average, for every knockdown. Since September 2025 the figure is 146.
That is a big move for a number that had wandered around 200 for seven years, and it hasn't come from more punching. A UFC fight now sees 77 significant strikes landed between the two fighters, against 89 before. Fewer strikes are landing, and more of them are putting someone down.
Why we count per strike
The obvious measure is knockdowns per fight, and that is up too, from 0.42 to 0.53. But fights are ending sooner, and a shorter fight has fewer strikes in it, so a per-fight count mixes two things together. Dividing by strikes landed asks the cleaner question: when a strike lands, how often does someone hit the floor?
Is it real?
Three checks.
Size. The recent figure comes from 619 fights, the earlier one from 3,477. We resampled both sets of fights 2,000 times to see how far each figure could plausibly move. The earlier one stays between 199 and 224 strikes per knockdown. The recent one stays between 129 and 166. The ranges don't overlap.
Quarter by quarter. Single quarters bounce around: early 2026 came in at 198. But the second and third quarters of 2026 are the two lowest of any quarter since 2018, at 139 and 127.
Where it shows up. It isn't one division carrying the average. Men at 170 lb and below went from 188 strikes per knockdown to 144. Men at 185 lb and above went from 171 to 107. Women's fights went from 547 to 411, though that last figure rests on only 18 knockdowns since September 2025, so treat it with care.
What came with it
Finishes. From 2018 to 2024, 50% of UFC fights ended in a knockout, technical knockout or submission. Since September 2025 it is 59%.
What we can't tell you
Why.
Our data is fight statistics: what landed, what didn't, how fights ended. It can show that something changed. It can't show what changed it. Equipment, rules, matchmaking, the mix of fighters on the roster, or something else entirely could all play a part, and nothing in these numbers picks one out.
We should also be straight about the start date. We chose September 2025 because that is where the change shows up in the data, not because we predicted it there in advance. So read it as a description of when the shift appears, not as a tested turning point.
We will keep watching it. If it is a real change in how the sport is fought, it will hold through the rest of the year. If it fades, that tells us something too.
Figures cover UFC fights with full statistics from January 2018 to 17 October 2026.
The Dominance Index is built and run by Hidden Labs. Spot a number you think is wrong? Tell us and we’ll check it.