The UFC handed out six post-fight bonuses after Saturday’s card – two more than normal.
After UFC 265, four fighters picked up an extra $50,000 for “Performance of the Night” in Houston, and two more won “Fight of the Night.” Check out the winners below.
‘Performance of the Night’: Miles Johns
Miles Johns (12-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) could have sat on what he had to imagine was a two-round lead in the third. Instead, he kept after a finished against Anderson Dos Santos (21-9 MMA, 1-3 UFC) and got it in a major way. Johns hurt Dos Santos with kicks in the first and second rounds. Then early in the third, he drilled Dos Santos with a left hand to the body, and a half-second later he brought a right hand across the top for a picture-perfect one-punch knockout.
‘Performance of the Night’: Jessica Penne
After sitting out for four years, Jessica Penne (14-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) returned in April with a big win. Saturday, she got her second straight – and it’ll come with an extra $50,000 after her first-round submission of Karolina Kowalkiewicz (12-7 MMA, 5-7 UFC). Kowalkiewicz made the mistake of going to the canvas with Penne, who didn’t need long to lock up an armbar to hand Kowalkiewicz her fifth straight loss.
‘Performance of the Night’: Vicente Luque
Vicente Luque (21-7-1 MMA, 14-3 UFC) snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in his welterweight bout against Michael Chiesa (17-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC). Luque was in trouble against Chiesa on the canvas in the first round, but he managed to escape Chiesa’s submission attempt and got one of his own – the D’Arce choke he’s become known for. And in the blink of an eye, he turned the tide of the fight, got Chiesa to tap and snap his four-fight streak at welterweight, and cemented himself as a potential problem for champion Kamaru Usman.
‘Performance of the Night’: Ciryl Gane
Ciryl Gane (10-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) put on a near flawless performance with a third-round TKO of Derrick Lewis (25-8 MMA, 16-6 UFC) in the main event to win the interim heavyweight title. Gane shut Lewis down with a heavy barrage of punches on the canvas and now is in line to fight champion Francis Ngannou, his former teammate, to unify the belts.
‘Fight of the Night’: Rafael Fiziev vs. Bobby Green
Rafael Fiziev (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) and Bobby Green (27-12-1 MMA, 8-7-1 UFC) threw hands and kicks at each other for 15 minutes in some of the closest back-and-forth striking of any UFC fight this year. The first two rounds were tight, statistically. The third appeared to be Green’s with little question. But when the scores were read, Fiziev had a 30-27 and a pair of 29-28s for the unanimous decision. He called Green a “real gangster” for standing with him throughout, and there was little question the bout was worthy of an extra $50,000 for each of them.