UFC Finishes by Round and Year, 1994–2026

Half of All Finishes Come in Round 1, a Few Points Fewer Than in the Early 2000s

In 1994–1997 every finish came in round 1, because the early tournament bouts had no round structure to speak of; the share was 88.2% in 1998 and 56.0% in 2000. From 2001, the round-1 share is pooled at 51.2% of 4,432 finishes, with round 2 at 31.5% and round 3 at 15.4%.

A straight line fitted through the yearly round-1 share for the full years 2001–2025 slopes −4.0 percentage points per decade and explains 29% of the year-to-year variation. The yearly share ranges from 44.3% (2021) to 65.4% (2003). Pooling 2001–2012 against 2013–2025 gives 55.2% and 49.7%, 5.5 points lower; round 3 went from 12.1% to 16.6%.

2025 came in at 54.6% of 260 finishes and the partial 2026 at 53.2% of 216. Rounds 4 and 5 exist only in five-round bouts and the odd non-standard-length bout, so their 85 finishes (1.8% of the total) are a small, mostly title-fight, slice.

Share of Finishes by Round, Year by Year

One line per round, each point a calendar year's share of that year's KO/TKO and submission finishes. Rounds 4 and 5 are in the table but not drawn. 2026 is January 1 to September 12 only. Hover a point for the value.

Finishes by Round and Year

Share = finishes in this round divided by all finishes that year. A zero is a counted zero. Round 4 finishes come from non-standard-length bouts recorded as such by the source.

Download the full table (CSV) · 165 rows

How the Numbers Were Made

Source and counting. Every bout on UFCSTATS.com's 788 completed-event pages (retrieved 2026-09-13) with method KO/TKO or SUB was counted in the calendar year of its event and the round shown on the page. Decisions, disqualifications, no contests and overturned results are excluded, since for those the round field is the scheduled length, not a stoppage. Every year x round pair is listed, including zeros. The 4,643 finishes equal the KO/TKO and SUB bout rows on those event pages.

The finding. A pooled share divides the finishes in a round by all finishes in the period. The trend is an ordinary least-squares line through the yearly round-1 share for full years 2001–2025, starting where multi-round bouts had become the norm; the era comparison pools 2001–2012 against 2013–2025.

What it does not show. A round-1 finish in a 1990s tournament bout and one in a modern five-round main event are counted alike. The table does not say how far into the round the stoppage came; the weight-class table carries average fight time.

Coverage. UFCSTATS.com's own completed-events index starts at UFC 2 (March 11, 1994); UFC 1 (November 12, 1993) is not in it, so the table runs 1994 to 2026 rather than 1993 to 2026. 2026 is a partial year: it covers January 1 to September 12, 2026, the retrieval date. Every 1994 to 2025 row is a full calendar year.

Licence. UFCSTATS.com states no licence for its statistics pages. The table republishes counts and shares derived from those pages, names the site as the source, and links to it. Anyone reusing the figures under terms that need an explicit licence grant should check with the publisher first.

Sources

1. UFCSTATS.com completed events index and event-details pagesprimaryUFCSTATS.com · primary · retrieved 2026-09-13 · No stated licence; public official statistics site (checked 2026-09-13) — 788 events, UFC 2 (1994-03-11) to 2026-09-12; weight class, method, round, time and title-bout flag read from each event page