Alexander Volkanovski, Petr Yan, Merab Dvalishvili, and Lone’er Kavanagh made up four of the six fighters in the top three fights at Saturday’s UFC 333, and they’re taking home all the bonus money.
Well, excluding finishing bonuses anyway.
Still, Fight of the Night and the two Performance of the Night bonuses awarded at the Abu Dhabi-based card went to those four stars, for some very memorably performances.
Taking home Fight of the Night was the UFC 333 co-main event, which saw bantamweight champion Petr Yan throw down with ex-champ Merab Dvalishvili for a third time. “The Machine” Dvalishvili started strong, but Yan turned up the heat in the later rounds, connecting several times on the Georgian, who seemed all but impervious to damage.
Yan came away with the decision win, retaining his title. Both came away with $100,000 U.S. in bonus money.
In the main event, Alexander Volkanovski cashed in after becoming the first person to defeat, and stop, Movsar Evloev. Late in the second, Volkanovski connected with some heavy blows and muscled Evloev to the mat. On top, he rained down a bit of ground n’ pound, hammerfists putting Evloev away after he could do nothing more than cover up.
Lone’er Kavanagh’s stoppage of Ramzan Temirov, meanwhile, started with a couple of well-placed uppercuts, and ended with a couple more blows to the side of the head.
Finishing bonuses worth $25,000 at UFC 333 went to Aaron Pico, Dominick Reyes, Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev, Abus Magomedov, and Kody Steele.