By The Numbers: Rob Font vs. Jose Aldo

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With traffic congestion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division having reached unprecedented levels, Rob Font finds his path to the top blocked by one of the sport’s preeminent gatekeepers.

The former CES MMA champion will put his considerable talents to the test against the resurgent Jose Aldo in the UFC on ESPN 31 headliner this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Font enters the cage on the strength of a four-fight winning streak. He last competed on May 22, when he laid claim to a five-round unanimous decision over Cody Garbrandt in the UFC Fight Night 188 main event. Long established as an all-time great, Aldo needs no introduction. The Andre Pederneiras protégé last appeared at UFC 265, where he took a unanimous verdict from American Top Team’s Pedro Munhoz in their Aug. 7 co-feature.

As Font and Aldo move ever closer to their high-stakes showdown, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:

34: Years of age for Font, who was born on June 25, 1987 in Leominster, Massachusetts—some 40 miles northwest of Boston.

4: Font victories by submission, accounting for 21% of his career total (19). His methods of choice: two guillotine chokes, one brabo choke and one rear-naked choke. Font owns eight other victories by knockout or technical knockout and seven more by decision.

6: Organizations in which Font has competed as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 9-3 in the UFC, 6-0 in CES MMA, 1-1 in Premier Fighting Championship, 1-0 in Reality Fighting, 1-0 in Cage Fighting Xtreme and 1-0 in Cage Titans.

2: Octagon appearances in which Font has landed at least 100 significant strikes. He connected on 176 of them against Garbrandt and 111 of them in his unanimous decision over current Bellator MMA champion Sergio Pettis at UFC on Fox 31 in December 2018.

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103: Combined wins between the four men—Munhoz, Raphael Assuncao, John Lineker and Desmond Green—who have defeated Font. They boast a cumulative record of 103-31 (.769).

35: Years of age for Aldo, who was born in Manaus, Brazil, on Sept. 9, 1986.

17: Aldo wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 57% of his career total (30). His list of UFC victims: Renato Carneiro, Jeremy Stephens, Chan Sung Jung and Chad Mendes. Aldo holds one other win by submission—he put away Luiz de Paula with a first-round arm-triangle choke at Shooto Brazil 7 in March 2005—and 12 more by decision.

2,037: Days spent by Aldo as a UFC champion, his run at the top spread across two different reigns. The Brazilian ruled the featherweight division from Nov. 20, 2010 to Dec. 12, 2015 and again from Nov. 26, 2016 to June 3, 2017. Only Anderson Silva (2,457), Georges St. Pierre (2,204), Demetrious Johnson (2,142) and Jon Jones (2,098) have enjoyed more time in possession of UFC gold.

18: Consecutive calendar years in which Aldo has drawn at least one assignment, including a 1-0 mark in 2021. He went 2-0 in 2004, 5-1 in 2005, 1-0 in 2006, 2-0 in 2007, 2-0 in 2008, 4-0 in 2009, 2-0 in 2010, 2-0 in 2011, 1-0 in 2012, 2-0 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014, 0-1 in 2015, 1-0 in 2016, 0-2 in 2017, 1-0 in 2018, 1-2 in 2019 and 1-1 in 2020.

.780: Cumulative winning percentage between the six men—Max Holloway (twice), Petr Yan, Marlon Moraes, Alexander Volkanovski, Conor McGregor and Luciano Azevedo—who have beaten Aldo. They sport a combined record of 124-33-2.