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Events · UFC 286: Edwards vs. Usman 3 · Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev
From the tape · 18 Mar 2023

Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev

UFC 286: Edwards vs. Usman 3 · London, England, United Kingdom
Result

Justin Gaethje beat Rafael Fiziev

Method
Decision - Majority
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
LightweightCo-MainReferee · Marc Goddard

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.

Red corner JustinGaethje“The Highlight”Genesis Training Center · Safford, Arizona
VSOn the tape
Blue corner RafaelFiziev“Ataman”Korday
Lightweight3 rounds18 Mar 2023
The story going in
  • Has finished 5 of 6 UFC wins.
  • Comes in on a 6-fight win streak.
  • Lands 1.8 more significant strikes a minute than Fiziev.
  • Has finished 3 of 6 UFC wins.
28-5
Record
14-5
34
Age
−4 yr30
+3″5' 11"
Height
5' 8"
70″
Reach
+1″71″
Orthodox
Stance
Switch
+310
UFC bouts
7
+33%5/683% of wins
Finishes
3/650% of wins
Safford, Arizona
From
Korday
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
Justin Gaethje23 sig landed
HEAD48%11 of 21BODY30%7 of 8LEGS22%5 of 7
Rafael Fiziev27 sig landed
HEAD41%11 of 29BODY56%15 of 19LEGS4%1 of 2
23 of 36
Sig.
strikes
27 of 50
0 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 20Clinch 3Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 25Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Gaethje firstMark Collett9–10Paul Sutherland9–10Clemens Werner10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Justin Gaethje27 sig landed
HEAD81%22 of 41BODY11%3 of 3LEGS7%2 of 4
Rafael Fiziev32 sig landed
HEAD38%12 of 27BODY56%18 of 20LEGS6%2 of 2
27 of 48
Sig.
strikes
32 of 49
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 23Clinch 4Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 27Clinch 5Ground 0
Judges · this round · Gaethje firstMark Collett10–9Paul Sutherland9–10Clemens Werner9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Justin Gaethje53 sig landed
HEAD91%48 of 80BODY8%4 of 4LEGS2%1 of 3
Rafael Fiziev38 sig landed
HEAD39%15 of 44BODY50%19 of 22LEGS11%4 of 4
53 of 87
Sig.
strikes
38 of 70
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:05
Control
0:00
Distance 41Clinch 12Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 29Clinch 9Ground 0
Judges · this round · Gaethje firstMark Collett10–9Paul Sutherland10–8Clemens Werner10–9

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

Majority Decision

Referee · Marc Goddard
Justin GaethjeRafael Fiziev
Official totals — Justin Gaethje first
JudgeTotal
Mark Collett2.0 avg spread · 47% wide29–28
Paul Sutherland2.2 avg spread · 52% wide28–28
Clemens Werner2.1 avg spread · 50% wide29–28

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 — 27 scored, Justin Gaethje first · unofficial

Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com29–28
Scott Fontana New York Post29–28
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com29–28
John Pollock POST Wrestling29–28
Ben Davis29–28
Jake Noecker BetQL29–28
Alex Behunin MMA Mania29–28
Steve Duncan mma.uno29–28
Drake Riggs MMAMania.com29–28
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com29–28
MM AJunkie.com29–28
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com29–28
Brian Knapp Sherdog.com29–28
Shane Clifford Sherdog.com29–28
Michael DeSantis MMASucka.com29–28
Dan Levi Best Fight Picks29–28
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com29–28
Nick Baldwin theScore28–29
MM AMania.com28–29
Daniel Yanofsky The Sporting News28–29
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com28–29
Combat Press.com28–29
Bloody Elbow.com28–29
Jillian DeCoursey28–29
Stephie Haynes BloodyElbow.com28–29
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com28–29
Nolan King MMAJunkie.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Gaethje · 54%29-28 Fiziev · 36%29-27 Gaethje · 3%30-27 Gaethje · 2%

1,696 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.

Justin Gaethje

0.33takedowns / 15 min
0.33 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.83 / 15m
0.82 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
1.26 / 15m
40%
ACCURACY
66%
0.00 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.00 / 15m

Rafael Fiziev

0.83takedowns / 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

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.

Justin Gaethje↑ +3.3pp
open 28.9%close 32.2%
Rafael Fiziev↓ −3.3pp
open 71.1%close 67.8%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Justin Gaethje opened at 28.9% and closed at 32.2% (+3.3pp), with Rafael Fiziev 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
Justin Gaethje23519728.9%32.2%+3.3pp
Rafael Fiziev-275-24371.1%67.8%−3.3pp
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 2026-07-18. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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