Fact Check: UFC Fight Night ‘Cerrone vs. Miller’

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone has finished his last three opponents. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Two of the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight division’s most consistent performers will soon cross paths in the center of the Octagon, as Donald Cerrone meets Jim Miller in the UFC Fight Night “Cerrone vs. Miller” main event on Wednesday at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. The two 155-pound standouts have combined for 15 post-fight performance bonuses between them.

Cerrone will enter the cage on a three-fight winning streak. The 31-year-old Jackson-Wink MMA representative last appeared at UFC on Fox 11 in April, when he submitted former Ring of Combat champion Edson Barboza with a first-round rear-naked choke at the Amway Center in Orlando. “Cowboy” has delivered more than half (15) of his 23 career victories by submission. Cerrone owns a 10-3 mark in the UFC.

An experienced Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Miller has rattled off back-to-back wins. The 30-year-old AMA Fight Club export last competed at UFC 172 in April, when he rendered Yancy Medeiros unconscious with a first-round guillotine choke at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore. The four men to whom Miller has lost -- Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz -- have a cumulative 66-19-2 record. He has compiled a 13-3 mark since arriving in the UFC in October 2008.

With the showdown between two of the UFC’s premier lightweights on the marquee, here are 10 facts surrounding UFC Fight Night “Cerrone vs. Miller” in America’s Favorite Playground:

FACT 1: No lightweight on the active UFC roster lands more significant strikes per minute (4.97) than Xtreme Couture’s Evan Dunham, according to FightMetric data.

FACT 2: Barboza owns a 25-3 record as a professional muay Thai fighter.

Photo: D. Mandel/Sherdog.com

Miller has 13 wins in the UFC.

FACT 3: The chronically overweight John Lineker -- he has missed weight in three of his six UFC appearances -- has never won a fight on American soil, having lost to Louis Gaudinot at UFC on Fox 3 in East Rutherford, N.J., and Ali Bagautinov at UFC 169 in Newark, N.J.

FACT 4: American Top Team’s Gleison Tibau ranks second on the UFC’s all-time list in takedowns landed with 71. Only Georges St. Pierre (87) has executed more.

FACT 5: Onetime Maximum Fighting Championship titleholder Pat Healy has more career wins (29) and losses (19) than any other fighter on the UFC Fight Night “Cerrone vs. Miller” lineup.

FACT 6: Seven of Rick Story’s eight pro defeats have come by decision. Only 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Demian Maia has finished him, the Brazilian grappling savant doing the honors with a crushing neck crank at UFC 153 in October 2012.

FACT 7: Undefeated women’s strawweight prospect Claudia Gadelha, 25, was a three-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion at the brown belt level. She now holds the rank of black belt under Nova Uniao founder Andre Pederneiras.

FACT 8: A graduate of Season 15 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Joe Proctor has held titles inside the Reality Fighting and American Fighting Organization promotions.

FACT 9: Once-beaten World Series of Fighting and Bellator MMA alum Jerrod Sanders was an NCAA All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University -- the same institution that spawned Randy Couture, Johny Hendricks, Mark Munoz and Daniel Cormier.

FACT 10: Featherweights Alex White and Lucas Martins have combined for 22 finishes in 24 victories between them.