Kelvin Gastelum and Jack Hermansson hold down prominent places in the line that has formed behind undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya. Naturally, any encounter between them lends itself to the potential for upward movement in the 185-pound weight class.
Gastelum will face Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 172 co-main event this Saturday on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Both men find themselves on the rebound, Gastelum after a close decision defeat to Darren Till and Hermansson after a technical knockout loss to Jared Cannonier—a reality that only raises the stakes further.
As Gastelum and Hermansson make final preparations for their confrontation, a look at a few of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
28: Years of age for Gastelum. He was born in San Jose, California, on Oct. 24, 1991.
5: First-round finishes on the Gastelum resume, accounting for one-third of his career win total (15). He has authored three of those stoppage victories since he joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster in 2013, as he submitted Brian Melancon with a rear-naked choke at UFC Fight Night 27, tapped Jake Ellenberger with a rear-naked choke at UFC 180 and knocked out Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 122.
55: Seconds required for Gastelum to submit Bill Smallwood with a rear-naked choke at a Ringside Unified Fighting event on July 7, 2012. It remains his quickest finish as a professional, though he did post a 33-second technical knockout against Collin Hart in “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 17 quarterfinals.
4: Gastelum defeats by decision, three of them of the split variety. His losses to Till, Tyron Woodley and Neil Magny all resulted in dueling scorecards.
91: Significant strikes landed by Gastelum in his unanimous decision loss to Adesanya at UFC 236. None of Adesanya’s other seven UFC opponents managed to land more than 46.
32: Years of age for Hermansson, who was born in Uddevalla, Sweden, on June 10, 1988.
11: Hermansson wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for more than half of his professional total (20). Included among them: a 28-second rout of Andor Filo in the World Fighting Championships organization.
9: Countries in which Hermansson has competed as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 7-0 in England, 3-2 in the United States, 1-2 in Brazil, 2-0 in Italy, 2-0 in Jordan, 1-1 in Denmark, 1-0 in Germany, 1-0 in Mexico and 1-0 in Sweden.
12: Middleweight titleholders in Cage Warriors Fighting Championship history. The list includes Hermansson. The others are Matt Ewin, Martin Kampmann, Gegard Mousasi, Chris Fields, Jesse Taylor, Jack Marshman, Oskar Piechota, Lee Chadwick, Jonas Billstein, James Webb and Nathias Frederick.
496: Total strikes attempted—most ever in a UFC middleweight fight—by Hermansson in his five-round unanimous decision over Ronaldo Souza in the UFC Fight Night 150 main event on April 27, 2019. He landed 256 of them, the second-highest total in UFC history at 185 pounds. Chael Sonnen landed a middleweight record 320 total strikes against Anderson Silva at UFC 117.