A showdown between high-output lightweights seems like a can’t-miss
recipe for success for the
Professional Fighters League.
Clay
Collard will collide with fellow
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran
Shane
Burgos when their lightweight semifinal headlines
PFL 9 on Wednesday inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden
in New York. The winner moves on to compete for $1,000,000 in
November. Collard enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back
victories. He last appeared in June, when he wiped out
Steven Ray
with second-round punches. Burgos, meanwhile, has rattled off three
wins in four outings. The
Team Tiger Schulmann mainstay last fought at PFL 6, where he
outpointed
Yamato
Nishikawa to a three-round unanimous decision.
As Collard and Burgos approach their looming battle at 155 pounds,
a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this
point:
30: Years of age for Collard, who was born in Payson, Utah, on
March 10, 1993.
11: Collard wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
48% of his career total (23). Ray,
Steve Sharp
and
Lucas
Montoya highlight his list of victims. Collard owns three other
wins by submission (13%) and nine more by decision (39%).
44: Seconds needed for Collard to put away
Steve
Walser with punches at a Showdown Fights event on May 4, 2012.
More than 11 years later, it remains his fastest finish to
date.
78: Rounds completed by Collard as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 15 different occasions and
carries a 9-6 record in those bouts.
169: Combined victories between the 10 opponents—
Alex
Martinez,
Raush
Manfio,
Darrick
Minner,
Tiago
dos Santos e Silva,
Gabriel
Benitez,
Max
Holloway,
Justin
Buchholz,
David
Castillo,
Oliver
Parker and
Jose
Salgado—who have defeated Collard. They boast a .681 cumulative
winning percentage at 169-79-1.
32: Years of age for Burgos, who was born on March 19, 1991 in The
Bronx, New York.
5: Burgos victories by submission, accounting for 31% of his career
total (16). His methods of choice: three rear-naked chokes, one
guillotine choke and one armbar. Burgos holds five other victories
by knockout or technical knockout (31%) and six more by decision
(38%).
200,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses pocketed by Burgos across
his 11 appearances in the UFC. He was awarded “Fight of the Night”
four times.
2: Countries in which Burgos has plied his mixed martial arts
trade. He has gone 15-4 in the United States and 1-0 in Canada.
.755: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—
Olivier
Aubin-Mercier,
Edson
Barboza,
Josh Emmett
and
Calvin
Kattar—who have beaten Burgos. They sport a combined record of
83-27.