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Events · UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2 · Kazula Vargas vs Rongzhu
From the tape · 24 Apr 2021

Kazula Vargas vs Rongzhu

UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2 · Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Result

Kazula Vargas beat Rongzhu

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
LightweightMain cardReferee · Keith Peterson

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.

KV
Red corner KazulaVargas
VSOn the tape
Blue corner Rongzhu
Lightweight3 rounds24 Apr 2021
The story going in
  • Has dropped 2 straight in the UFC.
  • Carries 54 points more takedown defence than Vargas.
12-5
Record
27-6
35
Age
−14 yr21
5' 8"
Height
+1″5' 9"
71″
Reach
71″
Southpaw
Stance
Orthodox
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
Kazula Vargas47 sig landed
HEAD36%17 of 47BODY38%18 of 21LEGS26%12 of 14
Rongzhu13 sig landed
HEAD85%11 of 29BODY15%2 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
47 of 82
Sig.
strikes
13 of 32
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 47Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 13Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Vargas firstEric Colón10–9Howard Reichbach10–9Troy Wincapaw10–8
Round 25:00 of action1 sub attempt
Kazula Vargas8 sig landed
HEAD38%3 of 8BODY25%2 of 2LEGS38%3 of 3
Rongzhu2 sig landed
HEAD100%2 of 7BODY0%0 landedLEGS0%0 landed
8 of 13
Sig.
strikes
2 of 7
0 of 0
Take-
downs
2 of 3
1:10
Control
2:32
1
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 6Clinch 1Ground 1
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 0Ground 1
Judges · this round · Vargas firstEric Colón10–9Howard Reichbach10–9Troy Wincapaw10–9
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Kazula Vargas41 sig landed
HEAD73%30 of 66BODY22%9 of 11LEGS5%2 of 4
Rongzhu27 sig landed
HEAD100%27 of 65BODY0%0 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
41 of 81
Sig.
strikes
27 of 66
0 of 1
Take-
downs
1 of 1
0:00
Control
0:12
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 41Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 26Clinch 0Ground 1
Judges · this round · Vargas firstEric Colón9–10Howard Reichbach9–10Troy Wincapaw10–9

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 · Keith Peterson
Kazula VargasRongzhu
Official totals — Kazula Vargas first
JudgeTotal
Eric Colón2.0 avg spread · 43% wide29–28
Howard Reichbach29–28
Troy Wincapaw2.3 avg spread · 55% wide30–26

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 — 21 scored, Kazula Vargas first · unofficial

Shawn Bitter Cageside Press30–27
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com29–28
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com29–28
Scottie Smith Sherdog.com29–28
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com29–28
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com29–28
MM AJunkie.com29–28
MM AMania.com29–28
Rob Tatum CombatPress.com29–28
Marcel Dorff mmadna.nl29–28
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com29–28
Hadi Mohamed Ali albiladpress.com29–28
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com29–28
Ant Walker Sherdog.com29–28
Jillian DeCoursey CombatPress.com29–28
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com29–28
Matthew Wells TheBodyLockMMA.com29–28
Joe McDonagh Cageside Press29–28
Eric Kowal MyMMANews.com29–28
Steve Duncan mma.uno29–28
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com29–28

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Vargas · 70%29-28 Zhu · 19%30-27 Vargas · 8%30-26 Vargas · 2%

47 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.

Kazula Vargas

0.40takedowns / 15 min
0.40 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.35 / 15m
1.60 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
2.18 / 15m
25%
ACCURACY
62%
0.40 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.10 / 15m

Rongzhu

1.35takedowns / 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 (5.22 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Lightweight

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.

Kazula Vargas vs Rongzhu.

← Every fighter on the record