UFC Fight Night 41 post-fight facts: Iuri Alcantara flirts with KO record

Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 41 event marked the organization’s first trip to Berlin, and with three of four main-card bouts taking place in the middleweight division, it was an important night for the 185-pounders.

Of those fighters, former Strikeforce champion Gegard Mousasi (35-4-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) turned in the most impressive performance with a submission victory over Mark Munoz (13-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) in the UFC Fight Pass-streamed headliner.

Not only did “The Dreamcatcher” stop Munoz in emphatic fashion, he became the first to submit “The Filipino Wrecking Machine,” and in the opening round, no less.

Mousasi’s victory was his first in the middleweight division since 2008 and was a reminder why he had so much success in the weight class in the first place. The win, parlayed with his close “Fight of the Night” decision loss to top contender Lyoto Machida in February, means big things in the future for the 28-year-old.

For more on Mousasi and other feats from the event, including who recorded the one of the quickest knockouts in UFC bantamweight history, check out 40 post-fight facts about UFC Fight Night 41 in Germany.

GENERAL

German fighters went 2-0 at the event.

Four fighters on the card suffered the first defeat of their professional career.

Mousasi, C.B. Dollaway, Niklas Backstrom and Magnus Cedenblad earned $50,000 UFC Fight Night 41 fight-night bonuses.

UFC Fight Night 41 drew an announced attendance of 8,000.

Total fight time of the 10-bout card was 1:48:36.

Betting favorites went 6-4 at the event.

MAIN CARD

Mousasi earned his first victory in a middleweight bout since a September 2008 knockout of Ronaldo Souza under the DREAM banner.

Mousasi has earned 30 of his 35 professional victories by submission or knockout, with 27 of those stoppages coming in the first round.

Munoz suffered the first submission loss of his 18-fight career.

Munoz has suffered defeats in three of his past four UFC appearances. He has been stopped by submission or knockout in all of those losses.

Munoz’s loss to Mousasi marked the first two-fight losing streak of his career.

Munoz has (unofficially) landed just four total strikes in his past two UFC appearances. He failed to land a single blow in his UFC Fight Night 30 loss to Lyoto Machida and connected with just four against Mousasi.

Dollaway (15-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) improved to 4-1 in his past five UFC appearances. His lone defeat in that span is a split-decision loss to Tim Boetsch at UFC 166.

Dollaway recorded his ninth UFC middleweight victory, which places him in a tie for the sixth most wins in divisional history behind Anderson Silva (13), Yushin Okami (13), Chris Leben (12), Michael Bisping (10) and Nate Marquardt (10).

Dollaway’s two takedowns landed gave him a total of 28 in his UFC career, the third most in middleweight history behind Chael Sonnen (35) and Ed Herman (30).

Francis Carmont (22-9 MMA, 6-2 UFC) has lost consecutive fights for the first time since 2004.

Carmont has suffered both of his UFC defeats by decision.

Carmont has given up four total takedowns in his past two UFC appearances. That’s more than his previous six UFC fights combined.

Sean Strickland (15-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) kept his perfect record intact with his 15th consecutive victory.

Luke Barnatt (8-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) had his eight-fight winning streak snapped for the first defeat of his professional career.

Niklas Backstrom (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) earned just the second submission victory of his career and his first since his professional debut on Oct. 31, 2009 – a span of 1,673 days (more than four years) and eight fights.

Backstrom became the fifth fighter in UFC history to earn a rear-naked-choke submission victory without back control. Other fighters to accomplish the feat are Francis Carmont at UFC on FUEL TV 4, Karlos Vemola at UFC on FOX 3, Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 142 and Mirko Filipovic at UFC 115.

Tom Niinimaki (21-6-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) had his 12-fight winning streak snapped for his first defeat since November 2006.

Niinimaki suffered a submission loss for the first time since Nov. 18, 2006 – a span of 2,751 days (more than seven years) and 13 fights.

PRELIMINARY CARD

Cedenblad (12-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) has earned both of his UFC victories by guillotine-choke submission.

Cedenblad’s submission victory was just the fourth in UFC history to occur at the 4:59 mark of Round 2. Other fighters to accomplish the feat are Michael Chiesa at UFC on FOX 8, Russell Doane at UFC Fight Night 34 and Chan Sung Jung at UFC Fight Night 24.

Cedenblad has finished his opponent by knockout or submission in 11 of his 12 professional victories.

Krzysztof Jotko (14-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) had his 14-fight winning streak snapped for the first defeat of his professional career.

Iuri Alcantara (30-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) improved to 3-1 with one no-contest since dropping to the UFC bantamweight division in January of this past year.

Alcantara recorded the third fastest knockout in UFC bantamweight history with his win at the 0:25 mark of Round 1. Erik Perez holds the record with a 17-second finish of Ken Stone at UFC 150.

Vaughan Lee (14-10-1 MMA, 3-4 UFC) has alternated wins and losses through his seven-fight UFC career.

Lee suffered a knockout loss for the first time since Aug. 18, 2007 – a span of 2,478 days (nearly seven years) and 15 fights.

Peter Sobotta (14-4-1 MMA, 1-3 UFC) earned his first UFC victory after going winless in three attempts during his previous stint with the organization from 2009-2010.

Sobotta improved to 6-0-1 since his original release from the UFC.

Sobotta earned the first decision victory of his 19-fight professional career.

Pawel Pawlak (10-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) had his 10-fight winning streak snapped for the first defeat of his professional career.

Maximo Blanco (10-6-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) has earned his past three MMA victories by decision after earning his first seven career wins by knockout or submission.

Andy Ogle (9-5 MMA, 1-4 UFC) extended his career-worst losing streak to three fights. Overall, “The Little Axe” has dropped four of his past five fights.

Ogle has suffered three of his four UFC defeats by decision.

Ruslan Magomedov (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) has earned six of his past seven MMA victories by decision.

For more on UFC Fight Night 41, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

FightMetric research analyst and live statistics producer Michael Carroll contributed to this story. Follow him on Twitter @MJCflipdascript.