The incredible numbers of Khamzat Chimaev’s star-making start in the UFC

Khamzat Chimaev will compete in his fourth UFC fight on Saturday at UFC 267 (10:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+). He is 3-0 inside the Octagon, 9-0 overall in his MMA career. He has finished every opponent, six of them in the first round. He has never seen a Round 3.

But those are not the only numbers that have drawn attention to the 27-year-old Chechnya-born Swede.

Chimaev burst on the UFC scene with a vengeance in the summer of 2020, finishing three opponents in barely two months. But he has not fought in over a year, his career derailed by a difficult bout with COVID-19. Now he’s healthy, and when Chimaev steps in with Li Jingliang this weekend for a middleweight fight on the main card in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, he will be looking to continue a historic run.

Here are some of Chimaev’s astounding numbers (courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information research), beginning with his first UFC appearance:

Chimaev landed 118 strikes in the first round of his July 16, 2020, Octagon debut, a fight in which he went on to submit John Phillips by second-round D’Arce choke. That’s a punch or kick every 2½ seconds, right out of the gate. Chimaev’s strike total made him the first middleweight in the UFC’s modern era to land at least 100 in a first round. His 118 strikes were the second most by a UFC 185-pounder in any round. If only he knew the number to beat was 120, a mark established by Ryan Janes in the second round of a 2017 bout against Andrew Sanchez, Chimaev might well have snuck in three more punches before the horn to get the record. He was that much in control.