By The Numbers: Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira

Brandon Royval may be all that stands between Tatsuro Taira and a shot at Ultimate Fighting Championship gold at 125 pounds.

The Top 5-ranked flyweights will lock horns when they headline UFC Fight Night 244 this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Royval enters the cage with victories in four of his past five outings. The Factory X standout last competed at UFC Fight Night 237, where he evened his head-to-head series against Brandon Moreno with a five-round split decision over the former champion in their Feb. 24 rematch. Taira, meanwhile, has won all 16 of his fights as a pro. The onetime Shooto titleholder last saw action on June 15, when he was awarded an injury-induced technical knockout over Alex Perez in the second round of their UFC on ESPN 58 encounter.

As Royval and Taira approach their high-stakes showdown, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:

32: Years of age for Royval, who was born in Denver on Aug. 16, 1992. Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road,” TLC’s “Baby-Baby-Baby,” Madonna’s “This Used To Be My Playground,” Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” were the Top 5 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the time.

9: Royval wins by submission, accounting for 56% of his career total (16). His methods of choice: three triangle chokes, three armbars, two guillotine chokes and one arm-triangle choke. Royval owns four other wins by knockout or technical knockout (25%) and three more by decision (19%).

412: Significant strikes landed by Royval across his nine appearances in the UFC. Opponents have connected with only 326 of them.

49: Rounds started by Royval as a professional mixed martial artist. He has involved the judges on eight different occasions and carries a 3-5 record in those bouts.

90: Combined victories between the six men—Moreno, Alexandre Pantoja (twice), Casey Kenney, Nick Urso, Ricky Palacios and Ben VomBaur—who have defeated Royval. They boast a cumulative .782 winning percentage at 90-24-3.

24: Years of age for Taira, who was born on Jan. 27, 2000 in Naha, Japan, some 6,500 miles from Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters in Las Vegas.

7: Taira victories by submission, accounting for 44% of his career total (16). His methods of choice: two triangle chokes, two rear-naked chokes, one guillotine choke, one armbar and one triangle armbar. Taira holds five other victories by knockout or technical knockout (31%) and four more by decision (25%).

60: Seconds needed for Taira to put away Takahiro Kohori with punches under the Shooto banner on Sept. 22, 2019. More than five years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.

3: Promotions for which Taira has plied his MMA trade. He has gone 9-0 in Shooto, 6-0 in the UFC and 1-0 in Vale Tudo Japan.

.722: Cumulative winning percentage between the six men—Perez, Carlos Hernandez, Edgar Chairez, Jesus Santos Aguilar, C.J. Vergara and Carlos Candelario—Taira has beaten as a member of the UFC roster. They sport a combined record of 76-29-1.