Sabermetrics is defined as the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, normally based on statistics to support an argument. Through Sabermetrics, baseball has a plethora of statistical information that can be valuable to fans, general managers, coaches, and agents, and there are numerous studies that tout Sabermetrics in baseball as being a productive field of study to scout talent, project player performance, and give managers, owners, and coaches an idea of how their current crop of players are performing.
Through the unique opportunity to analyze the data within the FightMetric project, I’ll be posting a lengthy series of articles exploring current Sabermetrics statistics in baseball as they apply to mixed martial arts. Can some of these statistics be ported to our sport? Do they have meaning? While the purpose of my fellowship is to give some meaning to the information in an unique manner, I feel that these base statistics will open up a world of thinking among our community and myself as to how we can further this very new field in our sport.
The first stat that I wanted to explore was the Isolated Power (ISO) statistic. In baseball, ISO is the measure of a batter’s raw power through extra bases per at-bat:
Isolated Power (ISO) = (Total Bases – Hits) / Total At-Bats
Total Bases (TB) = (Total Hits – Doubles – Triples – HR) + (Doubles * 2) + (Triples * 3) + (HR * 4)
MMA doesn’t have a way in which to classify each strike in correlation to a number of bases. We do, however, have a distinction between regular strikes and power strikes. As with every process that will come out of the fellowship, there are some concerns as to how meaningful the statistic actually is in our sport versus baseball.
For our formula, we’ll focus solely on striking. Isolated Striking Power (ISOS) should give us a measure of the ability of a fighter to land for power in correlation with the amount of strikes he attempts.
Isolated Striking Power (ISOS) = (Total Standing Strikes Landed Overall – Total Standing Regular Strikes) / Total Standing Attempts
This essentially gives us the Total Power Strikes Landed Overall / Total Standing Strikes Attempted, which gives us an accuracy statistic. The main difference is that we aren’t determining how accurate the fighter is with power strikes because we aren’t dividing by his Total Power Strikes Attempted. Instead, we’re determining the accuracy of power strikes in correlation to all attempted attacks on the feet.
The statistics shown below have a limitation of 150 attempts or more, a total fight time of 20 minutes in the Octagon, and includes ONLY distance striking. The clinch and ground strikes are not included. We will discuss this further after the jump…:
| ISOSUpdated |
Figure 1: Top 40 Fighters in ISOS stats for UFC bouts only. Limited to 150 attempts or greater, total Octagon time of 20 minutes or greater. Data used was current up to 12/29/2009, does not include most recent events.
The top dog probably isn’t a surprise to anyone as Anderson Silva has wrecked numerous opponents with powerful punches. His score is two times that of fighters such as Georges St. Pierre (.2131) and B.J. Penn (.2026), but that’s pretty accurate. St. Pierre has crushed a lot of opponents in recent memory with his ground strikes while Penn is more of a methodical jabber on the feet than a blaster of overhands.
Clinch and ground strikes were not included because those strikes are much more accurate than distance strikes. Including those strikes in a combined statistic would skew the stat. For example, Georges St. Pierre might have a very high number if we compiled a statistic using only ground strikes. If we combined the ground stat with the striking stat on the feet, St. Pierre’s overall would be skewed higher due to his high ground stat in comparison to his standing stat.
The best example of this was Ben Saunders. His Isolated Power in the clinch vaulted him into the top 3 on most of my models, and this was primarily due to the drubbing he gave Brandon Wolff. If we limit the dataset to over 150 attempts and distance strikes only, Saunders has some work to do in order to make the list. It also stops him from skewing his way into the top 3 when he really only displayed huge power and accuracy in the clinch.
Overall Thoughts
What can this statistic provide fans? That’s really what we’re trying to determine here when compiling these numbers. If I take a look at this stat, what would I know about the fighter in a split second? With ISO stats, the higher ISOS number generally means that the fighter has landed more power strikes over his total attempts than the lower ranked fighters.
Realistically, I’d know that fighters at the top of this list generally have a higher chance of ending someone’s night in a brutal flurry over fighters at the bottom. It isn’t always the case as there are powerful guys who can unleash explosive punches that simply don’t throw those blows frequently, but the fighters at the top are throwing powerful strikes frequently with success. And that should spell a higher chance of damage, knockouts, and finishes.
On paper however, this statistic should simply give fans an idea of how effective a fighter is in landing power strikes in the striking portion of his fights. The higher the number, the more effective the fighter has been in throwing power and landing.
All data provided by FightMetric.com for compiling of these statistics.