Two real-life titans will clash when Stipe Miocic defends his undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title against Francis Ngannou in the UFC 260 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. They met once previously, as Miocic cruised to a lopsided unanimous decision over “The Predator” a little more than three years ago.
Ngannou resurfaced as the No. 1 contender on the strength of a four-fight winning streak. He last appeared at UFC 249 on May 9, when he brought down Jairzinho Rozenstruik with punches in just 20 seconds. Miocic, meanwhile, has rattled off eight wins in nine outings. He last competed at UFC 252, where he completed his trilogy against Daniel Cormier with a unanimous decision over the American Kickboxing Academy captain.
As Miocic and Ngannou prepare for their rematch, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
38: Years of age for Miocic, who was born in Euclid, Ohio, on Aug. 19, 1982. Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” John Cougar’s “Hurts So Good,” The Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me” and Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” were the Top 5 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the time.
1,525: Total strikes landed by Miocic in UFC competition, placing him first on the promotion’s all-time list for heavyweights. Cain Velasquez (1,465), Andrei Arlovski (1,353), Junior dos Santos (1,217) and Fabricio Werdum (1,170) round out the Top 5 in the category. Miocic also ranks first in title fight wins (six), third in significant strikes landed (958), third in takedowns completed (25), fourth in knockouts (nine), fifth in wins (14) and fifth in control time (57:13).
9: Post-fight bonuses banked by Miocic across his 17 appearances under the UFC banner. He has been awarded “Performance of the Night” five times, “Fight of the Night” three times and “Knockout of the Night” once, resulting in $440,000 of additional income.
17: Seconds needed for Miocic to cut down Corey Mullis with punches at a North American Allied Fight Series event on Feb. 10, 2010. Having occurred in his professional debut, it remains the fastest finish of his 23-fight career.
4: Fights in which Miocic has crossed the 100-significant-strikes-landed threshold since joining the UFC roster in 2011. He connected with 106 of them in a unanimous decision over Roy Nelson at UFC 161, 113 of them in a fifth-round technical knockout of Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 65, 123 of them in a fourth-round technical knockout of Daniel Cormier at UFC 241 and 115 of them in his unanimous decision over Cormier at UFC 252.
34: Years of age for Ngannou, who was born on Sept. 5, 1986 in Batie, Cameroon—some 7,900 miles away from Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters.
11: First-round finishes on the Ngannou resume, accounting for 73% of his career win total (15).
162: Combined seconds needed for Ngannou to defeat Rozenstruik, dos Santos, Velasquez and Curtis Blaydes during his current four-fight winning streak.
6: Countries in which Ngannou has competed as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 8-2 in the United States, 3-1 in France, 1-0 in China, 1-0 in Croatia, 1-0 in Bahrain and 1-0 in Switzerland.
.829: Cumulative winning percentage between the three men—Miocic, Derrick Lewis and Zoumana Cisse—who have defeated Ngannou. They own a combined record of 58-12.