Preview: Luque vs. Neal
Some spellbinding action almost certainly awaits.
Vicente
Luque will attempt to get back on the rails in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division when he
faces
Geoff Neal in
the
UFC on ESPN 40 co-headliner this Saturday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas. Both men occupy spots in the latest Top 15 rankings at
170 pounds. Luque has rattled off 10 wins over his past 12 outings.
However, he finds himself on the rebound following a unanimous
decision loss to
Belal
Muhammad in their UFC on ESPN 34 rematch a little less than
four months ago. Neil, meanwhile, has won eight of his last 10
fights. The
Fortis
MMA rep has not competed since he eked out a split decision
over
Santiago
Ponzinibbio at UFC 269 in December.
As Luque and Neal approach their forthcoming confrontation in the
Nevada desert, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied
them to this point:
30: Years of age for Luque, who was born on Nov. 27, 1991 in
Westwood, New Jersey.
11: Luque wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
52% of his career total (21). His list of UFC victims: Muhammad,
Randy
Brown,
Niko Price,
Derrick
Krantz,
Bryan
Barberena,
Jalin
Turner,
Chad
Laprise and
Hector
Urbina. Luque holds eight other wins by submission (38%) and
two more by decision (10%).
400,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Luque across his
18 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the
Night” on four occasions and “Fight of the Night” on four
others.
14: Consecutive calendar years in which Luque has fought at least
once. In addition to his 0-1 mark so far in 2022, he went 2-0 in
2009, 0-1-1 in 2010, 1-1 in 2011, 1-1 in 2012, 2-1 in 2013, 1-0 in
2014, 1-1 in 2015, 3-0 in 2016, 1-1 in 2017, 2-0 in 2018, 3-1 in
2019, 2-0 in 2020 and 2-0 in 2021.
149: Combined victories between the eight opponents—Muhammad,
Stephen
Thompson,
Leon
Edwards,
Michael
Graves,
Carlos
Alexandre
Pereira,
Alfredo
Souza,
Marcos
Antonio Santana and
Felipe
Portela—who have defeated Luque. They boast a .749 cumulative
winning percentage (149-45-5).
31: Years of age for Neal, who was born in Austin, Texas, on Aug.
28, 1990.
8: Neal victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
57% of his career total (14). His list of UFC victims: Price,
Mike
Perry and
Frank
Camacho. Neal owns two other victories by submission (14%) and
four more by decision (29%).
29: Rounds completed by Neal as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on six different occasions and
carries a 4-2 record in those bouts.
6: First-round finishes on the Neal resume, with two of them having
taken place inside the Octagon. He dismissed
Brian
Camozzi with a rear-naked choke 2:48 into their UFC Fight Night
126 pairing on Feb. 18, 2018 and cut down the aforementioned Perry
with a head kick and follow-up punches 1:30 into their UFC 245
encounter on Dec. 14, 2019.
.719: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—Thompson,
Neil Magny,
Kevin
Holland and
Martin
Sano—who have beaten Neal. They sport a combined record of
69-25-2.