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MMA Analytics
New Python Tool! Get FREE Data with UFC Analytics Scraper
How to Easily Access UFC and Pride Fight Data for Analytics Projects
Accessing MMA data is essential for anyone interested in analytics. Whether you’re analyzing fighter performance, predicting fight outcomes, or evaluating match strategies, having access to reliable and detailed data is crucial. In this guide, we’ll focus on a powerful new tool—the UFC Analytics Scraper—that allows you to retrieve UFC and Pride fighting data, including round-by-round analytics, control times, strikes, takedowns, and more.
Step 1: Introducing the UFC Analytics Scraper
The UFC Analytics Scraper is a Python-based tool that retrieves detailed MMA fight data from UFCStats.com. This scraper provides a wealth of information for each fighter’s bouts, including:
- Round-by-Round Statistics: Strikes landed/attempted, takedowns, submission attempts, control time, and more.
- Total Fight Data: Comprehensive metrics aggregated over the entire fight.
- Significant Strikes Details: Breakdowns by head, body, leg, and position (distance, clinch, ground).
- UFC & Pride Coverage: Includes data not only from UFC events but also from Pride fights, allowing you to analyze legends like Fedor Emelianenko who never fought in the UFC but are accessible due to UFC’s acquisition of Pride footage and data.
Accessing the Tool
You can find the UFC Analytics Scraper and its documentation here:
Running in Google Colab
If you prefer not to run it locally, we’ve provided a Google Colab notebook so you can run the scraper directly in your browser. Simply open the link below, type in your chosen fighter’s name, and run the cells to obtain the data in CSV format:
Step 2: Using the UFC Analytics Scraper
The UFC Analytics Scraper uses Python and BeautifulSoup to parse and extract detailed stats from UFCStats.com. The scraper:
- Prompts you for a fighter’s name.
- Automatically searches for the fighter on UFCStats.com.
- Collects all available fight data, including UFC and Pride fights, round-by-round analytics, and control times.
- Outputs a clean CSV file ready for modeling, visualization, or statistical analysis.
Example: Retrieving Data for Israel Adesanya
If you run the scraper (in the provided Colab notebook or your local environment):
# Just type the fighter name when prompted, for example:
"Israel Adesanya"
# The scraper retrieves data for all of Adesanya’s fights.
# After processing, a CSV file named 'Israel_Adesanya_Fight_Data.csv' will be saved.
The resulting CSV provides round-by-round strikes, takedowns, control time, significant strike details, event names, dates, methods of victory, and more.
Predictive Modeling and Visualizations
With this rich dataset, you can:
- Predict Fight Outcomes: Use round-by-round stats, strike patterns, and takedown success rates to build predictive models for future fights.
- Create Data Visualizations: Produce heatmaps of striking locations, line graphs of fighter performance over time, or interactive dashboards in Tableau or Power BI.
- Compare Legends Across Eras: Since the data includes Pride fights, analyze how legendary Pride fighters compare to modern UFC athletes on various performance metrics.
Step 3: Exploring Other Data Sources
While the UFC Analytics Scraper focuses on UFCStats.com, you can still use complementary public sources for historical context or to add non-UFC organizations:
- UFC Stats: The official source for UFC metrics, which our scraper taps into for data.
- Tapology: Offers extensive MMA statistics, useful for cross-referencing the data you scrape.
Step 4: Apply Your Data Skills
The UFC Analytics Scraper data is an excellent starting point for:
- Machine learning models to predict fight outcomes based on historical performance.
- Streak analysis to see how fighters evolve over their careers.
- Comparative analysis of different fighting styles (e.g., strikers vs. grapplers) using round-by-round control and striking data.
Final Thoughts
MMA analytics is a rapidly growing field, and tools like the UFC Analytics Scraper simplify the process of obtaining high-quality data. By combining this data with advanced analytics techniques, you can gain new insights into fighter performance, predict outcomes, and enhance your MMA research.
Call to Action
Ready to deepen your MMA analytics expertise? Visit our MMA Analytics Courses to learn how to transform raw data into actionable insights, and start your journey to becoming a top-tier MMA analyst today.
