Brendan Allen still operates on the periphery of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight elite, his hold on a Top 15 ranking as tenuous as ever.
As Allen and Silva creep towards their forthcoming battle at 185 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
27: Years of age for Allen, who was born on Dec. 28, 1995 in Beaufort, South Carolina.
12: Allen victories by submission, accounting for 57% of his career total (21). His methods of choice: nine rear-naked chokes, one keylock, one triangle choke and one ankle lock. Allen owns five other victories by knockout or technical knockout (24%) and four more by decision (19%).
126: Seconds needed for Allen to put away Larry Crowe with punches at LFA 43 on June 22, 2018. More than five years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
9: Consecutive calendar years in which Allen has fought at least once. In addition to his 1-0 mark in 2023, he went 1-0 in 2015, 5-1 in 2016, 2-1 in 2017, 2-1 in 2018, 3-0 in 2019, 2-1 in 2020, 2-1 in 2021 and 3-0 in 2022.
.772: Cumulative winning percentage between the five opponents—Chris Curtis, Sean Strickland, Anthony Hernandez, Eryk Anders and Trevin Giles—who have beaten Allen. They boast a combined record of 98-29.
33: Years of age for Silva, who was born in Cajazeiras, Brazil, on July 13, 1989.
20: Silva wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 87% of his career total (23). His list of UFC victims: Tavares, Jordan Wright, Andrew Sanchez and Wellington Turman. Silva holds three other wins by decision (13%).
5: Men other than Silva who have held the M-1 Global middleweight championship. They are Ramazan Emeev (twice), Artem Frolov, Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, Magomed Sultanakhmedov and Rafal Moks.
14: First-round finishes on the Silva resume, with three of them having taken place inside the Octagon. In addition to his aforementioned rout of Tavares, he buried Turman with punches 4:45 into their UFC on ESPN 25 encounter in June 2021 and put away Wright with punches 1:28 into their UFC 269 pairing some six months later.
144: Combined victories between the eight opponents—Gerald Meerschaert, Alex Pereira, Moise Rimbon, Cassio Barbosa de Oliveira, Felipe Diego Dantas de Oliveira, Savio Montenegro, Isac Almeida and Rodrigo Carlos—who have defeated Silva. They sport a cumulative .643 winning percentage at 144-79-4.