Following last night’s UFC 242 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced, and on this occasion there were four ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses dished out.
Unsurprisingly, the event’s biggest star Khabib Nurmagomedov claimed one of those performance awards after he showed off not only his wrestling prowess, but also his submission skills with a third round rear-naked choke stoppage of Dustin Poirier.
Poirier had enjoyed a brief spell of success on the feet as he backed up the lightweight champion with punches earlier in the fight, but other than that it was Nurmagomedov who dictated the action, clinching up against the cage and taking him down repeatedly before the finish.
Back on the preliminary card Belal Muhammad also won a performance award after he tapped out Takashi Sato with a third round rear-naked choke submission.
Ottman Azaitar made a stunning debut on the main card as he landed a huge right hand in the opening round that sent Teemu Packalen falling face-first unconscious onto the canvas for the highlight-reel KO finish.
Also claiming a performance award was Muslim Salikhov, who landed a thunderous right hand that landed clean to knock out Nordine Taleb late in the first round.
