Nothing breeds uncertainty quite like the
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.
No one can be sure what to expect when
Jared
Vanderaa meets
Chase
Sherman as part of the
UFC on ESPN 39 main card this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Both men appear to be on thin ice. Vanderaa will step into
the Octagon on a three-fight losing streak. The
Team Quest rep last competed at UFC 273, where he submitted to
an
Alexey
Oleynik scarf hold in the first round of their April 9 pairing.
Sherman, meanwhile, has suffered four straight losses. He last
appeared on April 30, when he submitted to a first-round keylock
from the unbeaten
Alexander
Romanov at UFC on ESPN 35.
Ahead of the Vanderaa-Sherman confrontation in Sin City, a look at
some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
30: Years of age for Vanderaa, who was born in Richland,
Washington, on May 12, 1992.
7: Vanderaa victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 58% of his career total (12). His list of victims includes
Harry
Hunsucker,
Ruan Potts
and
Mychal
Clark. Vanderaa holds three other victories by submission and
two more by decision.
29: Seconds needed for Vanderaa to dismiss
John Rizzo
with a rear-naked choke in his professional debut under the
King
of the Cage banner on June 14, 2015. Having occurred more than
seven years ago, it remains his fastest finish to date.
8: Consecutive calendar years in which Vanderaa has fought at least
once. In addition to his 0-2 mark in 2022, he went 2-0 in 2015, 3-0
in 2016, 1-2 in 2017, 2-1 in 2018, 2-1 in 2019, 1-0 in 2020 and 1-2
in 2021.
.743: Cumulative winning percentage between the eight
opponents—Oleynik, Romanov,
Andrei
Arlovski,
Sergey
Spivak,
Renan
Ferreira,
Vernon
Lewis,
Andrew van
Zyl and
Richard
Odoms—who have beaten Vanderaa. They carry a combined record of
171-58-1.
32: Years of age for Sherman, who was born on Nov. 6, 1989 in
D’Iberville, Mississippi.
14: Sherman wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
93% of his career total (15). His list of victims includes
Isaac
Villanueva,
Rashad
Coulter and
Jack May.
Sherman owns one other win by decision, having outpointed former
M-1
Global champion
Damian
Grabowski to a unanimous verdict at UFC on Fox 25 in 2017.
787: Days since Sherman last had his hand raised—a second-round
technical knockout of Villanueva at UFC Fight Night 171 on May 13,
2020.
3: UFC appearances in which Sherman has connected with at least 100
significant strikes. He set a personal high-water mark when he
landed 117 of them in a unanimous decision defeat to
Parker
Porter at UFC on ESPN 29 in August.
156: Combined victories between the 10 opponents—Romanov, Arlovski,
Porter,
Jake
Collier,
Augusto
Sakai,
Justin
Willis,
Shamil
Abdurakhimov,
Walt Harris,
Justin
Ledet and
Alex
Nicholson—who have defeated Sherman. They sport a cumulative
.687 winning percentage (156-70-1).