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The heavy-handed heavyweight hopefuls will toe the line against one another in a UFC 264 showcase on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the winner figures to inch closer to relevance. Tuivasa enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back victories. He last competed at UFC on ESPN 21, where he wrecked Harry Hunsucker with punches just 49 seconds into their March 20 pairing. Hardy, meanwhile, has won two of his past three bouts. However, the former NFL star finds himself on the rebound following a second-round technical knockout loss to Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 183 on Dec. 19.
As Tuivasa and Hardy pore over the final details associated with their forthcoming confrontation, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
28: Years of age for Tuivasa, who was born on March 16, 1993 in Sydney, some 7,720 miles from Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters.
10: Tuivasa wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 91% of his career total (11). His list of UFC victims: Hunsucker, Stefan Struve, Cyril Asker and Rashad Coulter. Tuivas owns one other win by decision.
5: Sub-minute victories on the Tuivasa resume. In addition to his aforementioned rout of Hunsucker, he punched out Simon Osborne in 20 seconds at Elite Cage Championships 2 on July 6, 2012, wiped out Erik Nosa with punches in 28 seconds at a Gladiators Cage Fighting event on Nov. 9, 2012, took care of Gul Pohatu with punches in 44 seconds at Urban Fight Night 5 on Dec. 12, 2015 and knocked out Ben Sosoli with an elbow strike in 21 seconds at Australian Fighting Championship 6 on June 18, 2016.
52: Combined wins between the three men—Junior dos Santos, Blagoy Ivanov and Sergey Spivak—who have beaten Tuivasa. They sport a cumulative winning percentage of .776 (52-15).
1.03: Knockdowns landed by Tuivasa per 15 minutes of UFC competition, placing him fourth among active heavyweights in the category. Only Francis Ngannou (1.64), Walt Harris (1.30) and Jairzinho Rozenstruik (1.28) have higher rates.
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 264 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.
32: Years of age for Hardy, who was born in Millington, Tennessee, on July 28, 1988. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Coming to America,” “Die Hard,” “Midnight Run” and “Bambi” were the Top 5 movies at the domestic box office at the time.
6: Hardy victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 86% of his career total (seven). His list of UFC victims: Maurice Greene, Juan Adams and Dmitry Smoliakov. Hardy holds one other victory by decision.
127: Combined seconds needed for Hardy to finish his first three professional opponents. He punched out Austen Lane in 57 seconds on June 12, 2018, brought down Tebaris Gordon in 17 seconds on Aug. 7, 2018 and knocked out Ray Jones in 53 seconds on Sept. 29, 2018.
106: Significant strikes by which Hardy has outlanded the opposition in his four UFC wins. He connected with 151 such strikes against Greene, Adams, Smoliakov and Yorgan De Castro while absorbing only 45 in return.
.774: Cumulative winning percentage between the three men—Tybura, Alexander Volkov and Allen Crowder—who have defeated Hardy. They boast a combined record of 65-19.