The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is set to take center stage this Saturday. In the main event, premium lightweights Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan will go head-to-head at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
Meanwhile, Jailin Turner will face Bobby Green in the three-round co-headliner at 155 pounds. This event marks UFC’s return to The Lone Star State’s capital city after more than a year.
As UFC on ESPN 52 “Dariush vs. Tsarukyan” draws near, let’s delve into some numbers. Dariush has eight wins by submission, accounting for 36% of his career total (22). His preferred methods? Five rear-naked chokes, two armbars, and one arm-triangle choke.
Tsarukyan, the youngest fighter on the card, is 27 years old. Born on Oct. 11, 1996, in Akhalkalaki, Georgia, he’s certainly one to watch.
Turner has suited up for ten different pro mixed martial arts organizations. His record includes a 6-4 mark in the UFC and undefeated stints in Bellator MMA, Dana White’s Contender Series, King of the Cage, Tachi Palace Fights, and the World Series of Fighting.
Green has claimed 11 victories by knockout or technical knockout, making up 35% of his career total (31). His list of UFC victims includes Grant Dawson, Al Iaquinta, and James Krause.
Rob Font, a UFC bantamweight, has landed 1,250 total strikes. This places him sixth on the promotion’s all-time list at 135 pounds. He’s scheduled to face Deiveson Figueiredo in a three-round bantamweight showcase.
Figueiredo spent 692 days as UFC flyweight champion. His reign was split across two periods, from July 19, 2020, to June 12, 2021, and Jan. 22, 2022, to Jan. 21, 2023.
Fourteen men other than Sean Brady have held the Cage Fury Fighting Championships welterweight title. Brady is set to confront Kelvin Gastelum in a three-round welterweight attraction.
Gastelum has completed 70 rounds as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone the distance on 13 different occasions and carries a 7-6 record in those bouts.
Clay Guida, the oldest fighter on the card at 41, is a former Strikeforce champion. He was born in Round Lake, Illinois, on Dec. 8, 1981. Guida is lined up to meet Joaquim Silva in a three-round lightweight feature.
Silva set a personal record by landing 95 significant strikes in a third-round knockout of Jared Gordon at UFC on Fox 31 in December 2018.
Punahele Soriano needed just 31 seconds to punch out Rafael Celestino under the Titan Fighting Championship banner on April 6, 2018. More than five years later, it remains his fastest finish to date. Soriano is set to square off with Dustin Stoltzfus in a three-round middleweight appetizer.
Stoltzfus has plied his MMA trade in four countries. He has gone 11-1 in Germany, 2-3 in the United States, 1-0 in Switzerland, and 0-1 in France.
The 26 fighters slated to compete at the event have a cumulative winning percentage of .746. They boast a combined record of 419-141-5. Guida has recorded the most victories (38) and been saddled with the most losses (23) of anyone on the card.