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History · 2009 · UFC 97: Redemption · Denis Kang vs Xavier Foupa-Pokam
From the tape · 18 Apr 2009

Denis Kang vs Xavier Foupa-Pokam

UFC 97: Redemption · Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Result

Denis Kang beat Xavier Foupa-Pokam

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
MiddleweightMain cardReferee · Philippe Chartier

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.

DK
Red corner DenisKangAmerican Top Team · Vancouver, British Columbia
VSOn the tape
XF
Blue corner XavierFoupa-Pokam“Professor X”Snake Team · Paris
Middleweight3 rounds18 Apr 2009
The story going in
  • Averages 2.5 more takedowns per 15 minutes than Foupa-Pokam.
  • Is 8 points more accurate striking than Kang.
35-16-2
Record
32-22
31
Age
−5 yr26
5' 11"
Height
+2″6' 1"
Orthodox
Stance
Open Stance
American Top Team
Gym
Snake Team
Vancouver, British Columbia
From
Paris
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 — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action1 sub attempt
Denis Kang13 sig landed
HEAD77%10 of 24BODY23%3 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
Xavier Foupa-Pokam12 sig landed
HEAD25%3 of 16BODY50%6 of 8LEGS25%3 of 4
13 of 28
Sig.
strikes
12 of 28
2 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
1:50
Control
0:00
1
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 5Clinch 2Ground 6
Where it
happened
Distance 11Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Kang firstDouglas Crosby10–9Nelson Hamilton10–9Cecil Peoples10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Denis Kang11 sig landed
HEAD91%10 of 23BODY9%1 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
Xavier Foupa-Pokam9 sig landed
HEAD56%5 of 14BODY44%4 of 5LEGS0%0 landed
11 of 27
Sig.
strikes
9 of 19
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
2:51
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 2Clinch 1Ground 8
Where it
happened
Distance 6Clinch 3Ground 0
Judges · this round · Kang firstDouglas Crosby10–9Nelson Hamilton10–9Cecil Peoples10–9
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Denis Kang7 sig landed
HEAD71%5 of 8BODY29%2 of 2LEGS0%0 landed
Xavier Foupa-Pokam2 sig landed
HEAD0%0 of 4BODY100%2 of 2LEGS0%0 landed
7 of 10
Sig.
strikes
2 of 6
2 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
3:20
Control
0:06
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 2Clinch 0Ground 5
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 0Ground 1
Judges · this round · Kang firstDouglas Crosby10–9Nelson Hamilton10–9Cecil Peoples10–9

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.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Philippe Chartier
Denis KangXavier Foupa-Pokam
Official totals — Denis Kang first
JudgeTotal
Douglas Crosby30–27
Nelson Hamilton2.2 avg spread · 51% wide30–27
Cecil Peoples2.2 avg spread · 53% wide30–27

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 2 scored, Denis Kang first · unofficial

MM AJunkie.com30–27
Sherdog.com30–27

Fan vote · unofficial

30-27 Kang · 100%

2 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.

Denis Kang

2.51takedowns / 15 min
2.51 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.00 / 15m
3.86 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
n/a
65%
ACCURACY
n/a
1.20 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.00 / 15m

Xavier Foupa-Pokam

0.00takedowns / 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 (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Middleweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Denis Kang→ no move
open 72.8%close 73.3%
Xavier Foupa-Pokam→ no move
open 27.2%close 26.7%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

The line barely moved. Denis Kang opened at 72.8% and closed at 73.3% once the vig is taken out — a 0.5pp shift across the whole build-up. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Denis Kang-325-32072.8%73.3%+0.5pp
Xavier Foupa-Pokam25026027.2%26.7%−0.5pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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