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History · 2017 · UFC on FOX: Shevchenko vs. Pena · Raphael Assuncao vs Aljamain Sterling
From the tape · 28 Jan 2017

Raphael Assuncao vs Aljamain Sterling

UFC on FOX: Shevchenko vs. Pena · Denver, Colorado, USA
Result

Raphael Assuncao beat Aljamain Sterling

Method
Decision - Split
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
BantamweightMain cardReferee · Tim Mills

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.

RA
Red corner RaphaelAssuncaoXtreme Couture · Recife, Pernambuco
VSOn the tape
Blue corner AljamainSterling“Funk Master”Serra-Longo Fight Team · Cortland, New York
Bantamweight3 rounds28 Jan 2017
The story going in
  • Has finished 2 of 7 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 3 of 4 UFC wins.
  • 9 UFC bouts deep — 4 more than Sterling.
  • Is 10 points more accurate striking than Assuncao.
28-10
Record
26-5
34
Age
−7 yr27
5' 5"
Height
+2″5' 7"
66″
Reach
+5″71″
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
+49
UFC bouts
5
2/729% of wins
Finishes
+46%3/475% of wins
Xtreme Couture
Gym
Serra-Longo Fight Team
Recife, Pernambuco
From
Cortland, New York
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 action
Raphael Assuncao16 sig landed
HEAD38%6 of 13BODY19%3 of 4LEGS44%7 of 9
Aljamain Sterling21 sig landed
HEAD19%4 of 21BODY19%4 of 7LEGS62%13 of 18
16 of 26
Sig.
strikes
21 of 46
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:02
Distance 16Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 21Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Assuncao firstHale Hilsabeck10–9Ron Mann10–9Ben Ramirez10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Raphael Assuncao11 sig landed
HEAD9%1 of 21BODY36%4 of 5LEGS55%6 of 8
Aljamain Sterling13 sig landed
HEAD15%2 of 33BODY15%2 of 6LEGS69%9 of 12
11 of 34
Sig.
strikes
13 of 51
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 11Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 13Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Assuncao firstHale Hilsabeck10–9Ron Mann10–9Ben Ramirez9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Raphael Assuncao12 sig landed
HEAD25%3 of 26BODY8%1 of 5LEGS67%8 of 10
Aljamain Sterling18 sig landed
HEAD67%12 of 58BODY17%3 of 8LEGS17%3 of 9
12 of 41
Sig.
strikes
18 of 75
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 12Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 18Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Assuncao firstHale Hilsabeck9–10Ron Mann9–10Ben Ramirez9–10

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

Split Decision

Referee · Tim Mills
Raphael AssuncaoAljamain Sterling
Official totals — Raphael Assuncao first
JudgeTotal
Hale Hilsabeck29–28
Ron Mann29–28
Ben Ramirez28–29

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 — 18 scored, Raphael Assuncao first · unofficial

Nick Baldwin BloodyElbow.com29–28
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com29–28
MM AMania.com29–28
Nathan McCarter BleacherReport.com29–28
Mike Sloan Sherdog.com29–28
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com29–28
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com29–28
MM AJunkie.com29–28
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com29–28
Marc Raimondi MMAFighting.com29–28
MM ABrasil.com.br29–28
Matthew Wells mmalatestnews.com29–28
Steve Duncan mma.uno29–28
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com29–28
Sheehan SevereMMA.com29–29
Phil Murphy ESPN28–29
Patrick Wyman BleacherReport.com28–29
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Assuncao · 53%29-28 Sterling · 34%30-27 Sterling · 4%30-27 Assuncao · 2%

108 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.

Raphael Assuncao

1.65takedowns / 15 min
1.65 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
2.54 / 15m
4.23 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
7.94 / 15m
39%
ACCURACY
32%
0.20 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.60 / 15m

Aljamain Sterling

2.54takedowns / 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 (5.32 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked roster-wide

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.

Raphael Assuncao↑ +7.5pp
open 50.0%close 57.5%
Aljamain Sterling↓ −7.5pp
open 50.0%close 42.5%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Raphael Assuncao opened at 50.0% and closed at 57.5% (+7.5pp), with Aljamain Sterling moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. 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
Raphael Assuncao-120-14750.0%57.5%+7.5pp
Aljamain Sterling-12012750.0%42.5%−7.5pp
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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