Following last night’s UFC 308 event in Abu Dhabi the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
‘Fight Of The Night’ honors went to a bloody preliminary card battle between Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai that went the full 15 minutes.
You only needed to look at the faces of the fighters after the fight to know they more than earned their bonus as both sustained a lot of damage over the course of this back-and-forth war. That was especially true for Orolbai, who suffered an enormous haematoma to his right eye that led to suspicions he’d broken his orbital bone, though that later proved not to be the case. He showed no interest in bowing out of the fight though, but in the end it was Rebecki who fought his way to a split-decision victory (29-28 x2, 28-29).
Meanwhile, the finishes on the main card were so good that the UFC brass decided to give out an extra ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus, bringing the total to three.
That included an instant classic finish from Shara Magomedov, who registered a UFC first when he landed a stunning double spinning back-fist combo on Armen Petrosyan late in the 2nd round to claim a remarkable highlight-reel TKO finish.
Also securing a bonus award was co-main event winner Khamzat Chimaev, who was back to his best against Robert Whittaker as he swiftly took him down early in the opening round and kept him there for an extended period, before going for a face crank submission that instantly had the former 185lb champ tapping out. Soon afterwards it became apparent that Whittaker had suffered a dislocated jaw.
And of course there was never any doubt that main event winner Ilia Topuria would claim a performance bonus after he became the first fighter to KO Max Holloway. The early rounds had been competitive, but in the third Topuria hurt ‘Blessed’ with a straight right, and soon after he connected with a blistering left hook that sent his rival crashing to the canvas, with hammer-fists following to seal a show-stopping KO victory.
