UFC Performance Institute data notebook: Takedowns not as important to wins as traditionally thought

LAS VEGAS — The UFC Performance Institute is leading in the areas of injury prevention, nutrition and strength and conditioning for UFC fighters. Those are not the only areas the state-of-the-art facility’s staff are looking at, though.

The UFC PI, which is now one year old, published an 80-page analysis last week and the first chapter is entitled “Winning in the UFC.” UFC Performance Institute vice president of performance Duncan French said at a recent media gathering on the promotion’s campus that the entire, lengthy study was founded on that question — how do fighters win fights in the UFC? Everything else, French said, was “reverse engineered” from that.

And the answers to that question…