See if you can look at these numbers and know what they mean:
Lightweight:
Rob McCullough – 77%
Jamie Varner – 92%
Ben Henderson – 89%Featherweight:
Urijah Faber – 91%
Mike Brown – 74%
Jose Aldo – 80%Bantamweight:
Chase Beebe – 83%
Miguel Torres – 85%
Brian Bowles – 100%
Dominick Cruz – 43%
These are the percentage of wins by stoppage of WEC champions since 2007 at the time that the fighter fought for his belt. Dominick Cruz is the only man to win a title in a Zuffa promotion during that time who had stopped less than half of the men he beat. Here’s a look at the five Zuffa champions since 2007 (Cruz excluded) with the lowest stoppage rate coming into the evening where they won the titile:
Forrest Griffin – 67%
Randy Couture – 57%
Lyoto Machida – 57%
Rashad Evans – 50%
Matt Serra – 50%
Total combined title defenses by these men? 2. Randy Couture (who is hard to count given it was his 5th title) defended against Gabriel Gonzaga. And Lyoto Machida defended with his ultra-controversial decision win over Mauricio Rua.
This isn’t to say that Cruz can’t defend his title successfully and have a four year reign as champion. I just place a lot of value on the ability of a fighter to finish, especially when he is having to fight 5 round fights against stiff competition.
One final interesting note: Brian Bowles joins Brian Stann as the only WEC champions who failed to successfully defend their title at least once since the Zuffa purchase.