By The Numbers: Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen

Top-shelf contenders will look to improve their position in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s bantamweight pecking order on Saturday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, where Marlon Vera confronts Cory Sandhagen in the UFC on ESPN 43 main event.

Vera enters the cage on the strength of a four-fight winning streak. The Team Oyama product last competed on Aug. 13, when he brought down Dominick Cruz with a head kick in the fourth round of their UFC on ESPN 41 headliner. Sandhagen, meanwhile, has rattled off 10 victories across his past 13 outings. The Elevation Fight Team export last appeared at UFC Fight Night 210, where he forced a fourth-round corner stoppage against Yadong Song on Sept. 17.

As Vera and Sandhagen approach their high-stakes battle at 135 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:

30: Years of age for Vera, who was born in Chone, Ecuador, on Dec. 2, 1992.

8: Vera wins by submission, accounting for 40% of his career total (20). His methods of choice: three rear-naked chokes, two triangle chokes, one heel hook, one triangle armbar and one armbar. Vera owns eight other wins by knockout or technical knockout (40%) and four more by decision (20%).

400,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Vera across his 20 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the Night” five times and “Fight of the Night” three times.

52: Rounds completed by Vera as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone the distance on 12 different occasions and carries a 4-7-1 record in those bouts.

181: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Song, Jose Aldo, Douglas Silva de Andrade, John Lineker, Davey Grant, Marco Beltran and Bruno Leandro Soares Lobato—who have defeated Vera. They boast a cumulative .716 winning percentage at 181-71-3.

30: Years of age for Sandhagen, who was born on April 20, 1992 in Aurora, Colorado.

7: Sandhagen victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 47% of his career total (15). His list of UFC victims: Song, Frankie Edgar, Marlon Moraes, Iuri Alcantara and Austin Arnett. Sandhagen holds three other victories by submission (20%) and five more by decision (33%).

5.93: Strikes landed by Sandhagen per minute of UFC competition, placing him seventh on the promotion’s all-time list at 135 pounds. Only Sean O’Malley (7.47), Louis Smolka (7.18), Adrian Yanez (6.55), Randy Costa (6.53), Rob Font (6.38) and Batgerel Danaa (6.22) have connected at a higher rate.

6: First-round finishes on the Sandhagen resume, with two of them having taken place inside the Octagon. He dispatched Mario Bautista with an armbar in 3:31 at UFC Fight Night 143 on Jan. 19, 2019 and flattened the aforementioned Edgar with a flying knee in 28 seconds at UFC Fight Night 184 on Feb. 6, 2021.

.796: Cumulative winning percentage between the four opponents—Petr Yan, T.J. Dillashaw, Aljamain Sterling and Jamall Emmers—who have beaten Sandhagen. They sport a combined record of 74-19.