Chris
Gutierrez
might soon shed his dark horse label inside the
rough-and-tumble
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.
The
Factory
X standout will test his mettle against former
Resurrection Fighting Alliance titleholder
Pedro
Munhoz as part of the
UFC on ESPN 44 main card this Saturday at the T-Mobile Center
in Kansas City, Missouri. Gutierrez has quietly pieced together a
seven-fight unbeaten streak since his 2018 defeat to
Raoni
Barcelos. He last appeared at UFC 281, where he cut down
Frankie
Edgar with a knee strike in the first round of their Nov. 12
encounter. Munhoz, meanwhile, has hit the skids over the last
four-plus years, going 1-4 with one no contest across his past six
assignments. He has not fought since his July 2 pairing with Sean
O’Malley at UFC 276 ended with his being poked in the eye in the
second round.
As Gutierrez and Munhoz approach their forthcoming clash at 135
pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to
this point:
31: Years of age for Gutierrez, who was born on April 22, 1991 in
Jersey City, New Jersey.
9: Gutierrez victories by knockout or technical knockout,
accounting for 47% of his career total (19). His list of UFC
victims: Edgar,
Batgerel
Danaa and
Vince
Morales. Gutierrez owns one other victory by submission (6%)—he
bounced
Ray
Rodriguez with a rear-naked choke at a
Legacy Fighting Alliance show in 2018—and nine more by decision
(47%).
42: Seconds needed for Gutierrez to put away
Craig Ross
with punches under the Sugar Creek Showdown banner on Nov. 15,
2014. More than nine years later, it remains his fastest finish to
date.
55: Rounds completed by Gutierrez as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 14 different occasions and
carries a 9-3-2 record in those bouts.
.732: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—
Raoni
Barcelos,
Jerrod
Sanders,
Timur
Valiev and
Jake
Constant—who have beaten Gutierrez. They sport a combined
record of 60-22.
36: Years of age for Munhoz, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on
Sept. 7, 1986.
8: Munhoz wins by submission, accounting for 42% of his career
total (19). His methods of choice: six guillotine chokes, one
rear-naked choke and one heel hook. Munhoz holds five other wins by
knockout or technical knockout (26%) and six more by decision
(32%).
1,038: Significant strikes landed by Munhoz as a UFC bantamweight,
placing him third on the promotion’s all-time list at 135 pounds.
Only
Rob
Font (1,151) and
T.J.
Dillashaw (1,122) have connected with more.
350,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Munhoz across his
18 assignments inside the Octagon. The
American Top Team rep has been awarded “Fight of the Night”
four times and “Performance of the Night” three times.
175: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Edgar,
Dominick
Cruz,
Jose Aldo,
Aljamain
Sterling,
John Dodson,
Jimmie
Rivera and
Raphael
Assuncao—who have defeated Munhoz. They boast a cumulative .763
winning percentage at 175-54-1.