In terms of an uphill climb, it could not get much steeper for Fabian Edwards.
The Team Renegade standout will confront former Bellator MMA, Dream and Strikeforce champion Gegard Mousasi in the Bellator 296 headliner on Friday at the Accor Arena in Paris. Edwards enters the cage on a modest two-fight winning streak. He last competed at Bellator 287, where he took a unanimous decision from Charlie Ward in their three-round pairing on Oct. 29. Mousasi, meanwhile, has won 12 of his past 14 bouts. He last fought on June 24, when he surrendered his middleweight crown to the unbeaten Johnny Eblen in a five-round unanimous decision at Bellator 282.
As Mousasi and Edwards move ever closer to their forthcoming clash at 185 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
37: Years of age for Mousasi, who was born in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 1, 1985.
12: Mousasi wins by submission, accounting for 25% of his career total (49). His methods of choice: six rear-naked chokes, two triangle chokes, one armbar, one arm-triangle choke, one straight armbar and one guillotine choke. Mousasi owns 28 other wins by knockout or technical knockout (57%) and nine more by decision (18%).
10: Seconds needed for Mousasi to bury Tsuyoshi Kurihara with a knee strike and follow-up punches at Deep 22 Impact on Dec. 2, 2005. More than 17 years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
64: Rounds completed by Mousasi as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone the distance on 15 different occasions and carries a 9-4-2 record in those bouts.
179: Combined victories between the eight opponents—Eblen, Rafael Lovato Jr., Uriah Hall, Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida, Muhammed Lawal, Akihiro Gono and Petras Markevicius—who have beaten Mousasi. They sport a cumulative .692 winning percentage at 179-76-13.
30: Years of age for Edwards, who was born on March 24, 1993 in Kingston, Jamaica.
4: Edwards victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 36% of his career total. His complete list of victims: Lyoto Machida, Falco Neto Lopes, Claudio Conti and Rafael Cejrowski. Edwards holds three other victories by submission (28%) and four more by decision (36%).
721: Days since Edwards last tasted defeat. He wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against Austin Vanderford at Bellator 259 on May 21, 2021 and rebounded by besting Machida and Ward in back-to-back outings.
2: Organizations for which Edwards has plied his mixed martial arts trade. He has gone 7-2 in Bellator and 4-0 in the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts.
.862: Cumulative winning percentage between the two opponents—Vanderford and Costello van Steenis—who have defeated Edwards. They boast a combined record of 25-4.
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