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Events · UFC 272: Covington vs. Masvidal · Nicolae Negumereanu vs Kennedy Nzechukwu
From the tape · 5 Mar 2022

Nicolae Negumereanu vs Kennedy Nzechukwu

UFC 272: Covington vs. Masvidal · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Result

Nicolae Negumereanu beat Kennedy Nzechukwu

Method
Decision - Split
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
Light HeavyweightMain cardReferee · Mark Smith

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.

NN
Red corner NicolaeNegumereanuKorona Sports Centre · Brasov
VSOn the tape
Blue corner KennedyNzechukwu“African Savage”Fortis MMA · Dallas, Texas
Light Heavyweight3 rounds5 Mar 2022
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 2 of 3 UFC wins.
  • Carries 18 points more takedown defence than Negumereanu.
13-2
Record
14-7-1
−2 yr27
Age
29
6' 0"
Height
+5″6' 5"
78″
Reach
+5″83″
Orthodox
Stance
Southpaw
3
UFC bouts
+25
1/250% of wins
Finishes
2/367% of wins
Korona Sports Centre
Gym
Fortis MMA
Brasov
From
Dallas, Texas
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
Nicolae Negumereanu20 sig landed
HEAD35%7 of 28BODY10%2 of 3LEGS55%11 of 13
Kennedy Nzechukwu16 sig landed
HEAD75%12 of 23BODY25%4 of 5LEGS0%0 landed
20 of 44
Sig.
strikes
16 of 28
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 20Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 16Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Negumereanu firstDouglas Crosby10–9Sal D'Amato9–10Tony Weeks10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Nicolae Negumereanu17 sig landed
HEAD47%8 of 31BODY6%1 of 2LEGS47%8 of 9
Kennedy Nzechukwu24 sig landed
HEAD92%22 of 45BODY8%2 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
17 of 42
Sig.
strikes
24 of 48
1 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 0
2:43
Control
0:00
Distance 9Clinch 8Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 24Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Negumereanu firstDouglas Crosby10–9Sal D'Amato9–10Tony Weeks10–9
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Nicolae Negumereanu27 sig landed
HEAD78%21 of 67BODY15%4 of 5LEGS7%2 of 2
Kennedy Nzechukwu55 sig landed
HEAD91%50 of 109BODY9%5 of 5LEGS0%0 landed
27 of 74
Sig.
strikes
55 of 114
0 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:45
Control
0:00
Distance 26Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 52Clinch 3Ground 0
Judges · this round · Negumereanu firstDouglas Crosby9–9Sal D'Amato9–9Tony Weeks9–9

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

Split Decision

Referee · Mark Smith
Nicolae NegumereanuKennedy Nzechukwu
Official totals — Nicolae Negumereanu first
JudgeTotal
Douglas Crosby29–27
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide27–29
Tony Weeks2.1 avg spread · 49% wide29–27

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 — 15 scored, Nicolae Negumereanu first · unofficial

Ben Duffy Sherdog.com29–27
Steve Duncan mma.uno28–28
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com28–28
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com28–28
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com28–28
Joe McDonagh Cageside Press28–28
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com28–28
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com27–29
Combat Press.com27–29
Matthew Wells MMAJunkie.com27–29
Drake Riggs MMAMania.com27–29
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com27–29
MM AJunkie.com27–29
MM AMania.com27–29
Sheehan SevereMMA.com27–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-27 Nzechukwu · 41%29-27 Negumereanu · 13%29-28 Nzechukwu · 3%

174 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.

Nicolae Negumereanu

1.02takedowns / 15 min
1.02 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.50 / 15m
3.64 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
1.11 / 15m
28%
ACCURACY
45%
0.00 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.20 / 15m

Kennedy Nzechukwu

0.50takedowns / 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.

Nicolae Negumereanu↓ −2.2pp
open 46.8%close 44.5%
Kennedy Nzechukwu↑ +2.2pp
open 53.2%close 55.5%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Nicolae Negumereanu opened at 46.8% and closed at 44.5% (−2.2pp), with Kennedy Nzechukwu 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
Nicolae Negumereanu10511546.8%44.5%−2.2pp
Kennedy Nzechukwu-125-13853.2%55.5%+2.2pp
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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