Fans are in for a treat when two gritty veterans duke it out at the center of the Octagon. Middleweight finishers Patrick Cummins and Ed Herman will grace the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York, for UFC Fight Night 152. Below are some numbers that may just define this thrilling encounter.
Age and overall experience
Cummins and Herman are both 38 years old, but the latter has more experience. Herman started his pro career with a submission victory in an event called Xtreme Ring Wars 2 held on May 10, 2003 in Pasco, Washington. He fought for different regional events before taking his first bout overseas, specifically in Tokyo, Japan, for Pancrase. In 2006, he was signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship and also fought once against Ronaldo Souza at Strikeforce. In all, he has 38 professional fights.Unlike Herman, Cummins started his pro career in a big promotion, beating Terrell Brown by TKO at Strikeforce. After that, he fought for three different promotions before catching the eye of UFC officials. He was signed by the promotion in 2014 and has been fighting there ever since. In total, Cummins has engaged in 16 professional bouts.
Wins by knockout
Of Herman’s 19 professional wins, six have come by by KO or TKO. He has knocked out some tough guys inside the Octagon such as Joe Doerksen, Tim Credeur and Tim Boetsch. Outside of the promotion, his victims include future UFC standouts Derek Downey and Nick Thompson as well as inaugural UFC middleweight champion Dave Menne.While Cummins doesn’t have as much experience as Herman, he has a higher knockout rate. He has starched four opponents out of his 10 wins. His victims aside from Brown include Ricky Pulu, Roger Narvaez and Rafael Cavalcante.
Wins by submission
Between the two middleweights, it’s Herman who loves submissions. He has tapped out 13 opponents and earned Submission of the Night honors twice for his armbar on Chris Price and rear-naked choke on Scott Smith. He actually started his pro career with an armbar on Ryan Pope (tapping him out twice). That was the first of eight wins by armbar. His list of submission victims also include Rich Guerin, Justin Hawes, Jacen Flynn, Cory Devela, Shane Davis, Brian Ebersole, Rhomez Brower, Kyle Noke and Clifford Starks.Unlike Herman, Cummins is not a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and has never submitted anyone in the UFC. He does have two victories by tapout though, which happened early in his career. He submitted Tasi Edwards and Willie Smalls at events in Hawaii and Colorado respectively.
UFC losses
On his UFC debut, Cummins had the unwelcoming task of sharing the Octagon with current heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 170. That meeting began the first of six losses in 12 UFC fights. He also suffered losses to a murderer’s row that consists of Ovince St. Preux, Glover Teixeira, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Corey Anderson and Misha Cirkunov.Herman, likewise, started his UFC career with a loss. “Short Fuse” was beaten by Kendall Grove at The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale, his first of 11 UFC defeats. He also bowed to Jason MacDonald, Demian Maia, Alan Belcher, Aaron Simpson, Ronaldo Souza, Thales Leites, Derek Brunson, Nikita Krylov, CB Dollaway and Gian Villante.