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History · 2006 · UFC 59: Reality Check · Jeff Monson vs Marcio Cruz
From the tape · 15 Apr 2006

Jeff Monson vs Marcio Cruz

UFC 59: Reality Check · Anaheim, California, USA
Result

Jeff Monson beat Marcio Cruz

Method
Decision - Split
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
HeavyweightMain cardReferee · John McCarthy

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

JM
Red corner JeffMonson“The Snowman”American Top Team · Miami, Florida
VSOn the tape
MC
Blue corner MarcioCruz“Pe de Pano”Gracie Fusion · Rio de Janeiro
Heavyweight3 rounds15 Apr 2006
The story going in
  • Carries 29 points more takedown defence than Cruz.
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Is 16 points more accurate striking than Monson.
60-26-1
Record
8-3
35
Age
−8 yr27
5' 9"
Height
+7″6' 4"
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
+24
UFC bouts
2
1/250% of wins
Finishes
2/2100% of wins
American Top Team
Gym
Gracie Fusion
Miami, Florida
From
Rio de Janeiro
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — and the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Jeff Monson7 sig landed
HEAD57%4 of 41BODY43%3 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
Marcio Cruz19 sig landed
HEAD32%6 of 40BODY11%2 of 2LEGS58%11 of 12
7 of 44
Sig.
strikes
19 of 54
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
1:07
Control
0:34
Distance 5Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 16Clinch 3Ground 0
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.
Round 25:00 of action
Jeff Monson18 sig landed
HEAD50%9 of 39BODY28%5 of 5LEGS22%4 of 4
Marcio Cruz15 sig landed
HEAD33%5 of 26BODY7%1 of 1LEGS60%9 of 9
18 of 48
Sig.
strikes
15 of 36
2 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 1
1:43
Control
0:07
Distance 9Clinch 6Ground 3
Where it
happened
Distance 14Clinch 1Ground 0
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Jeff Monson7 sig landed
HEAD43%3 of 13BODY43%3 of 4LEGS14%1 of 1
Marcio Cruz6 sig landed
HEAD50%3 of 13BODY33%2 of 2LEGS17%1 of 1
7 of 18
Sig.
strikes
6 of 16
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 3
3:20
Control
0:28
Distance 2Clinch 2Ground 3
Where it
happened
Distance 4Clinch 2Ground 0
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

Judges’ scorecards

The judges’ totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score.

Official card

Split Decision

Referee · John McCarthy
Official totals — Jeff Monson first
JudgeTotal
Abe Belardo2.5 avg spread · 65% wide30–27
Alejandro Rochin28–29
Hector Hernandez29–28

There is no per-round card for this bout in our decisions source, so the judges’ totals are all we can show. This one is inside the window our source covers — it is a gap in the record, not a scrape we are waiting on, and nothing here is estimated to fill it.

Media cards — 1 scored, Jeff Monson first · unofficial

Sherdog.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Monson · 40%30-27 Monson · 40%29-28 Cruz · 20%

5 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Jeff Monson

1.06takedowns / 15 min
1.06 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.53 / 15m
8.83 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
7.57 / 15m
12%
ACCURACY
7%
0.70 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.60 / 15m

Marcio Cruz

0.53takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.77 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Heavyweight

The market story

What the market did on the way to the cage — the price, not our model. This bout is settled; the window below is closed.

We hold no market price for this bout — no captured price series, and no opening or closing line in the sportsbook record we fall back on. So there is nothing to show, and we would rather show nothing than draw a line that was never there.

Jeff Monson vs Marcio Cruz.

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