In 1994–2000, 70% of UFC fights ended in the first round. In 2020–2026 it is 25%.
How often a UFC fight is over inside one round.
Computed from 8,723 fights · 5 eras · updated 20 September 2026
First-round finish rate by era · every value is in the table below, with the number of fights behind it.
Era
R1 finish rate
First-round finishes
Fights
1994–2000
70%
168
240
2001–2005
40%
100
248
2006–2012
31%
508
1,619
2013–2019
25%
818
3,238
2020–2026
25%
852
3,378
What counts. A first-round finish is a knockout or submission the official record places in round one. A fight is a UFC bout on the official record with a result. Draws, no-contests and overturned results are excluded from every count on this page; disqualifications and could-not-continues are counted as fights, which is why the knockout, submission and decision shares do not add up to 100%. How this table is cut. Five eras: the no-rules years, the Zuffa reboot, the boom, the expansion decade and the current one. Check us. Every number here is recomputed from the official UFC statistical record on each build — nothing on this page is typed in by hand. Search every fight to filter the same record yourself, or start from the year-by-year archive.