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Ciryl Gane will put his perfect 8-0 record on the line when he faces former Bellator MMA and M-1 Global champion Alexander Volkov in the UFC Fight Night 190 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where the winner figures to move one step closer to an elusive title shot. Gane burst on the scene in 2019 and enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks. He last appeared at UFC Fight Night 186, where he cruised to a unanimous decision over Jairzinho Rozenstruik on Feb. 27. Volkov, meanwhile, enters the cage as the vastly more experienced and accomplished competitor. He last set foot inside the Octagon on Feb. 6, when he took care of Alistair Overeem with punches in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 184 headliner.
As Gane and Volkov pore over the final details ahead of their five-round showdown, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
31: Years of age for Gane, who was born on May 6, 1990 in La Roche-sur-Yon, France, a city of some 55,000 people on the western side of the European nation.
3: Gane wins by submission, accounting for 38% of his career total (eight). His methods of choice: one guillotine choke, one arm-triangle choke and one heel hook. Gane owns three other wins by knockout or technical knockout and two more by decision.
60: Significant strikes by which Gane outlanded Rozenstruik in their five-round confrontation. He connected on 102 such strikes while absorbing only 42 in return.
5: Takedowns landed by Gane across his five UFC appearances. His success in the category can be attributed more to persistence than technique, as he has completed those takedowns on 19 attempts.
2: Promotions in which Gane has competed as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 5-0 in the UFC and 3-0 in TKO Major League MMA.
32: Years of age for Volkov, who was born on Oct. 24, 1988 in Moscow, nearly 5,900 miles from Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters.
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22: Volkov victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 67% of his career total (33). His list of victims includes Walt Harris, Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve and Attila Vegh. Volkov holds three other victories by submission and eight more by decision.
4: Sub-minute finishes on the Volkov resume. He put away Adam Alikhanov with punches in 20 seconds at an M-1 Global event on May 28, 2009, cut down Ruslan Chapko with punches in 47 seconds at a Volgograd HTHF Federation show on Jan. 14, 2011, punched out Arsen Abdulkerimov in 26 seconds at M-1 Global “Fedor vs. Monson” on Nov. 20, 2011 and prompted a doctor stoppage against Roy Boughton in 40 seconds under the Tech-Krep Fighting Championship banner on Dec. 12, 2014.
154: Combined wins between the eight men—Curtis Blaydes, Derrick Lewis, Cheick Kongo, Tony Johnson , Vitaly Minakov, Pat Bennett, Maxim Grishin and Akhmed Sultanov—who have defeated Volkov. They sport a cumulative record of 154-44-5 (.759).
687: Significant strikes landed by Volkov as a member of the UFC roster, placing him seventh on the promotion’s all-time list for heavyweights. Only Andrei Arlovski (1,189), Junior dos Santos (1,109), Stipe Miocic (970), Werdum (890), Cain Velasquez (719) and Overeem (715) have connected with more.