Grant Dawson wants a bigger slice of the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight pie.
As Dawson and Ismagulov move toward their forthcoming battle at 155 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
29: Years of age for Dawson, who was born on Feb. 20, 1994 in Cambria, Wisconsin.
13: Dawson wins by submission, accounting for 68% of his career total (19). His methods of choice: 11 rear-naked chokes, one armbar and one triangle choke. Dawson holds four other wins by knockout or technical knockout (21%) and two more by decision (11%).
165: Seconds needed for Dawson to dismiss Adam Rider with a rear-naked choke under the Shamrock Fighting Championships banner on March 7, 2015. More than eight years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
27: Takedowns completed by Dawson across his nine UFC assignments. He registered a career-best seven of them before he tapped Jared Gordon with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their April 30, 2022 pairing at UFC on ESPN 35.
125: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Madsen, Gordon, Leonardo Santos, Nad Narimani, Darrick Minner, Michael Trizano and Julian Erose—Dawson has defeated since he linked arms with the UFC. They sport a cumulative .734 winning percentage at 125-45-1.
32: Years of age for Ismagulov, who was born in Orenburg, Russia, on Feb. 3, 1991.
12: Ismagulov victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 50% of his career total (24). Maxim Divnich, Sergei Andreev and Raul Tutarauli highlight his list of victims. Ismagulov owns one other victory by submission (4%)—he dispatched Vyacheslav Ten with a rear-naked choke at an M-1 Global show in 2016—and 11 more by decision (46%).
67: Rounds started by Ismagulov as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone the distance on 13 different occasions and carries an 11-2 record in those bouts.
141: Total strikes landed by Ismagulov in his three-round unanimous decision over Rafael Alves at UFC Fight Night 188 on May 22, 2021. He has not connected with more than 103 of them in any other appearance inside the Octagon.
.750: Cumulative winning percentage between the five opponents—Alves, Guram Kutateladze, Thiago Moises, Joel Alvarez and Alex Gorgees—Ismagulov has beaten as a member of the UFC roster. They boast a combined record of 75-25.