Tony Ferguson appears to have exhausted all his options at 155 pounds, which has resulted in his setting up shop elsewhere.
As Ferguson and Li move ever closer to their confrontation at 170 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
34: Years of age for Li, who was born in Tacheng, China, on March 20, 1988.
10: Li victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 53% of his career total (19). His list of UFC victims: Salikhov, Santiago Ponzinibbio, Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, David Zawada, Zak Ottow, Bobby Nash, Anton Zafir and Dhiego Lima. Li owns four other victories by submission (21%) and five more by decision (26%).
350,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Li across his 16 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the Night” on five different occasions and “Fight of the Night” twice.
9: Countries in which Li has suited up as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone 10-2 in his native China, 4-1 in the United States, 2-0 in Singapore, 1-1 in the United Arab Emirates, 1-0 in Malaysia, 1-0 in the Philippines, 0-1 in Japan, 0-1 in Canada and 0-1 in Australia.
.744: Cumulative winning percentage between the seven opponents—Khamzat Chimaev, Neil Magny, Jake Matthews, Keita Nakamura, Nordine Taleb, Myung Ho Bae and Pat Crawley—who have beaten Li. They sport a combined record of 131-42-3.
38: Years of age for Ferguson, who was born on Feb. 12, 1984 in Oxnard, California.
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8: Ferguson wins by submission, accounting for 32% of his career total. His methods of choice: three rear-naked chokes, three brabo chokes, one triangle choke and one neck crank. Ferguson holds 12 other wins by knockout or technical knockout (48%) and five more by decision (20%).
68: Seconds needed for Ferguson to put away Devin Benjamin with punches and elbows at a National Fight Alliance MMA show on March 5, 2009. More than 13 years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
15: Consecutive calendar years in which Ferguson has fought at least once. In addition to his 0-1 mark so far in 2022, he went 3-0 in 2008, 5-2 in 2009, 2-0 in 2010, 3-0 in 2011, 0-1 in 2012, 1-0 in 2013, 3-0 in 2014, 3-0 in 2015, 2-0 in 2016, 1-0 in 2017, 1-0 in 2018, 1-0 in 2019, 0-2 in 2020 and 0-1 in 2021.
151: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Chandler, Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Michael Johnson, Jamie Toney and Karen Darabedyan—who have defeated Ferguson. They boast a cumulative .733 winning percentage at 151-54-1.