By The Numbers: Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos Trilogy

They were arguably the two heaviest hitters of their generation, which made them natural foils at the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.

Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos toed the line against one another three times between Nov. 12, 2011 and Oct. 19, 2013, as their historic tug of war came to define a weight class for nearly two full years. Velasquez won two of the three meetings, with all three ending in conclusive fashion. Now more than a decade removed from their final encounter, the two men remain interminably linked by what took place between them inside the cage.

As their rivalry continues to drift into the rearview mirror, a by-the-numbers look at what made Velasquez vs. dos Santos so unforgettable:

707: Days between the first and third Velasquez-JDS meetings. Dos Santos stopped Velasquez in a 64-second knockout at UFC on Fox 1 in November 2011 and then lost their two subsequent rematches, as he dropped a five-round unanimous decision at UFC 155 in December 2012 before being victimized in a fifth-round technical knockout at UFC 166 in October 2013.

920,000: Pay-per-view buys for the two premium live events headlined by Velasquez-JDS. UFC 155 drew 590,000 buys, while UFC 166 garnered 330,000. Their first encounter anchored the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s historic debut on Fox.

17,238: Fans to witness the third installment of the Velasquez-JDS rivalry in the UFC 166 main event at the Toyota Center in Houston. It was the highest attendance figure of the trilogy and resulted in a $2.5 million gate.

2,953: Seconds of fight time in the Velasquez-JDS series. They battled one another inside the Octagon for a total of 49:13—the equivalent of a little less than 10 rounds.

631: Total strikes landed by Velasquez and dos Santos in their trilogy. More than half of those (336) were tallied in their final meeting.

2: Submission attempts between Velasquez and dos Santos in their three bouts. Both men were credited with an attempt in their third encounter.

130: Significant strikes by which Velasquez outlanded dos Santos in their rivalry. The American Kickboxing Academy ace connected with 241 such strikes while absorbing only 111 in return.

13: Takedowns completed by Velasquez at dos Santos’ expense, having done so with a 27% accuracy rate (13-for-47). Dos Santos, meanwhile, whiffed on his only two bids for takedowns.

3: Knockdowns recorded by the two heavyweights in their three-fight series, though only one of them resulted in a stoppage. Dos Santos put away the Californian with an overhand right and follow-up punches in the first round of their UFC on Fox 1 main event to become the 13th undisputed heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history.

.438: Cumulative winning percentage between the two men after the completion of their trilogy. Dos Santos has compiled a 6-7 record across his 13 subsequent appearances, with wins over Stipe Miocic, Ben Rothwell, Blagoy Ivanov, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis and Fabricio Werdum. Velasquez, meanwhile, fought just three times, went 1-2 and announced his retirement in October 2019.