Leon Edwards has been on a tear since joining the Ultimate Fighting Championship, losing only to Claudio Henrique da Silva in his debut and to the current champion, Kamaru Usman, at UFC on Fox 17. On July 20, he will look to make it eight wins in a row against a former champion in Rafael dos Anjos, who should be hungry for a follow-up victory. As the two scrappers prepare to mix it up at UFC on ESPN 4, learn more about them through the numbers below.
Age and overall experience
At 34, dos Anjos is seven years the senior of Edwards, who will be celebrating his 28th birthday a little over a month after their bout. Dos Anjos is going for his 41st professional fight, having started his career with a loss on Sept. 25, 2004 in his native of Brazil. He had his biggest break when he signed with the UFC and debuted at UFC 91 against Jeremy Stephens.Dos Anjos later snatched the UFC lightweight title from Anthony Pettis and defended it against Donald Cerrone before losing to Eddie Alvarez. He later moved to welterweight and has since gathered four wins and two losses.
The Englishman, Edwards, started his pro career almost seven years after dos Anjos began his. He picked up two straight wins before suffering his first loss at Fight UK MMA. But it was during his stint at BAMMA where he caught the eye of the UFC after winning the promotion’s welterweight championship. He now has an overall record of 17-3, with victories over the likes of Cerrone and Gunnar Nelson.
Active winning streak
After winning three straight at 170 pounds, dos Anjos bowed to Colby Covington for the interim welterweight championship and then to Usman, both by unanimous decision. He got back to winning ways when he submitted Kevin Lee in the main event of UFC Fight Night 152.As dos Anjos targets his second consecutive win, Edwards has been basking in the win column since his decision loss to Usman. He has beaten Dominic Waters, Albert Tumenov, Vicente Luque, Bryan Barberena, Peter Sobotta, Cerrone and Nelson for a seven-fight winning run.
Knockout rate
Only five of dos Anjos’ 29 victories have come by KO or TKO, which makes for a lowly 17 percent knockout finishing rate. What’s impressive is the fact that two of those five knockouts were on high-profile lightweights Cerrone and Benson Henderson.Edwards has a higher knockout finishing rate of 35 percent, with six of his 17 wins coming by KO or TKO. His victims include Damian Zlotnicki, Jonathan Bilton, Wendle Lewis, Shaun Taylor, Baczynski and Sobotta.
Submission rate
Dos Anjos is a jiu-jitsu black belt who has been making good use of his ground game in MMA. Apart from Lee, he has also tapped out Neil Magny, Kamal Shalorus, Terry Etim, Takaichi Hirayama, Danilo Cherman, Mauricio Reis, Thiago Meller, Johil de Oliveira and Diego Oliveira. That’s 10 submission wins, making for a 34 percent submission finishing rate.Edwards often elects to stand up, but he’s shown some decent groundwork as evidenced by his three submission wins. That makes for an 18 percent submission finishing rate. He has tapped out Tumenov, Wayne Murrie and Adam Boussif.