Eddie Alvarez carries the kind of profile all less-established prospects want—and hunt.
As Alvarez and Lapicus move toward their high-stakes confrontation, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
37: Years of age for Alvarez, who was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 11, 1984. “Terms of Endearment,” “Sudden Impact,” “Scarface,” “Yentl” and “Uncommon Valor” were the Top 5 movies at the domestic box office at the time.
18: Alvarez victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 60% of his career total (30). His long list of victims includes Tatsuya Kawajiri, Roger Huerta, Shinya Aoki and Justin Gaethje. Alvarez owns six other wins by submission and six more by decision.
10: Lightweight titleholders, including Alvarez, in UFC history. Jens Pulver, Sean Sherk, B.J. Penn, Frankie Edgar, Benson Henderson, Anthony Pettis, Rafael dos Anjos, Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov are the others. Alvarez captured the 155-pound crown on July 7, 2016, when he cut down dos Anjos with punches in the UFC Fight Night 90 main event. His reign lasted 128 days.
60: Seconds needed for Alvarez to strike Chris Schlesinger into submission at a Reality Fighting event on Oct. 16, 2004. Having occurred in his third professional appearance, it remains the fastest finish of his 38-fight career.
205: Combined wins between the seven men—Aoki, McGregor, Timofey Nastyukhin, Dustin Poirier, Donald Cerrone, Michael Chandler and Nick Thompson—who have beaten Alvarez. They sport a .777 (205-58-1) cumulative winning percentage.
25: Years of age for Lapicus, who was born on Oct. 22, 1995 in Gura Bicului, Moldova—a village of less than 4,000 people on the eastern side of the European nation.
10: Lapicus victories by submission, accounting for 71% of his career total (14). His methods of choice: five rear-naked chokes, three armbars, one guillotine choke and one triangle choke. Lapicus owns four other wins by knockout or technical knockout.
4: Sub-minute stoppage victories on the Lapicus resume. He submitted Guido Iaquinta with an armbar in 49 seconds on Feb. 25, 2017, knocked out Giovanni Bagnasco in 41 seconds on May 13, 2017, put away Dominik Mitidieri with punches in 32 seconds on Feb. 17, 2018 and dispatched Mohamed Salem with a guillotine choke in 59 seconds on May 19, 2018.
3: Countries in which Lapicus has competed as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 12-0 in Italy, 1-1 in Singapore and 1-0 in Indonesia.
.400: Cumulative winning percentage between the 14 men Lapicus has defeated to this point in his career. They own a combined record of 52-77-1, and only two of them—Marat Gafurov and Shannon Wiratchai—have won more fights than they have lost.