Joseph Benavidez and Jussier Formiga first fought at UFC Fight Night 28, with the former getting his hand raised via first-round stoppage. After almost six years, they will run it back when they meet at Minneapolis on June 29. Will Benavidez make it two in a row or will Formiga get revenge? As fans await UFC on ESPN 3, take a look at some significant numbers below.
Wins by knockout
Benavidez possesses considerable power in his hands, and has made good use of it better than most fighters in the division. He has tallied seven victories by KO or TKO, four of which were in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. These were against Formiga, Yasuhiro Urushitani, Darren Uyenoyama and Alex Perez. His victims outside of the Octagon are Justin Smitley, Carlos Lovio, and Rani Yahya during their stint at World Extreme Cagefighting.As for Formiga, he has yet to score a knockout after 28 professional fights. He is currently sharpening his striking and other aspects of his game at American Top Team.
Wins by submission
Leave it to Formiga to stop opponents by submission. He is, after all, a jiu-jitsu black belt who started his professional career with three out of five wins coming via tapout. On his debut, Formiga needed only 3:20 to finish compatriot Chacal Chacal in a local tournament. He would score six more submissions before joining the UFC, at the expense of Jose Maria Tome, Ralph Alves, Michael William Costa, Rodrigo Favacho dos Santos, Martin Coria, and Sidney Lessa de Oliveira. His victims inside the Octagon are Scott Jorgensen, Yuta Sasaki and Ben Nguyen.The more complete fighter of the two, Benavidez owns nine victories by submission. He started his pro career by tapping out Brandon Shelton and Ramon Rodriguez, and later, Rocky Del Monte, Jason Georgianna, Maurice Eazel, Junya Kodo, Miguel Torres and Wagnney Fabiano. His lone victim in the UFC is Tim Elliott.
Striking accuracy
Benavidez may be a step ahead of Formiga in terms of technical proficiency, but it’s the latter who has a higher striking accuracy at 40 percent. Of the 528 significant strikes he threw after 13 UFC fights, Formiga landed 209. Benavidez, on the other hand, holds a 33 percent striking accuracy after connecting 989 out of 2,969 significant strikes.Takedown accuracy
Benavidez was 16 years old when he stared training wrestling and has incorporated takedowns quite well in his overall game. But at a 30 percent takedown accuracy, he trails Formiga who prides of a 40 percent takedown accuracy.Out of 97 attempts, Benavidez was successful 16 times. The Brazilian, for his part, landed 15 out of 50 takedown attempts.