Following last night’s UFC 325 event in Sydney, Australia the recipients of the evening’s $100,000 bonus awards were announced.
earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event featherweight title rematch between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes, which again went the full five rounds.
In many respects this one played out much like their previous encounter last year, with Volkanovski using his slick footwork and smart distance management to keep out of harms way, while cleanly picking out his strikes. Despite having already went five rounds against him, Lopes was unable to solve the puzzle and stop the champion from dictating the rules of engagement, though he did very briefly put him down in the third round with a counter hook. In the end Volkanovski emerged with a convincing unanimous decision victory (49-46 x2, 50-45).
Mauricio Ruffy banked a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus after he finished Rafael Fiziev in the second round after rocking him with a powerful step-in straight right that sent his opponent reeling backwards on unsteady legs, before putting him down with another punch. The still dazed Fiziev tried his best to survive and momentarily got back upright, only to be sent straight down again as punches continued to land, leading to a TKO finish at 4.30mins of the 2nd round.
Also earning a performance bonus was 2025’s ‘Rookie Of The Year’ Quillan Salkilld, who slammed Jamie Mullarkey to the mat mid-way through the opening round and then applied what was officially announced as a rear-naked choke finish, but looked more like a neck crank at the 3.02min mark.
