The Ultimate Fighting Championship will drop the curtain on an eventful 2023 campaign with UFC 296 this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Leon Edwards puts his welterweight title on the line against Colby Covington in the main event and Alexandre Pantoja risks his flyweight crown opposite Brandon Royval in the co-headliner.
2,919: Days since Edwards last experienced a setback. The Team Renegade cornerstone dropped a unanimous decision to Kamaru Usman at UFC on Fox 17 in the first of their three encounters on Dec. 19, 2015. In 12 subsequent outings, Edwards has compiled an 11-0 record with one no contest.
100,000: Dollars banked by Covington across his 15 appearances in the UFC. The MMA Masters export has been awarded “Fight of the Night” twice.
10: Pantoja wins by submission, accounting for 38% of the American Top Team star’s career total. His methods of choice: seven rear-naked chokes, one armbar, one triangle choke and one neck crank.
39: Rounds completed by Royval as a professional mixed martial artist. The Factory X representative has gone the distance on six different occasions and carries a 2-4 record in those bouts.
6: Countries in which Shavkat Rakhmonov has plied his MMA trade. In addition to a 7-0 mark in his native Kazakhstan, the undefeated Kill Cliff Fight Club standout has gone 4-0 in the United States, 3-0 in Russia, 1-0 in Azerbaijan, 1-0 in South Korea and 1-0 in the United Arab Emirates. Rakhmanov toes the line against Stephen Thompson in a three-round welterweight showcase.
40: Years of age for Thompson. The oldest fighter on the card, he was born on Feb. 11, 1983 in Simpsonville, South Carolina.
21: Seconds needed for Paddy Pimblett to put away Jack Drabble with punches under the Olympian MMA Championships banner on June 1, 2013. More than a decade later, it remains his fastest finish to date. Pimblett takes aim at “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 winner Tony Ferguson in a three-round lightweight feature.
1,159: Significant strikes landed by Ferguson as a UFC lightweight, placing him fifth on the promotion’s all-time list at 155 pounds. Only Bobby Green (1,659), John Makdessi (1,293), Evan Dunham (1,225) and Dustin Porier (1,166) have connected with more.
.788: Cumulative winning percentage between the 26 fighters scheduled to compete at the event. They boast a combined record of 444-118-4. Pantoja has been credited with the most victories (26) of anyone on the card, while onetime Ring of Combat champion Brian Kelleher has been saddled with the most losses (14). Kelleher meets Cody Garbrandt in a three-round bantamweight prelim.