Jim Miller had a heck of a night at UFC Vegas 40, a card that was thin on paper, and something of an uneven effort come Fight Night.
Entering his 38th UFC fight and fight number 50 overall, the veteran lightweight welcomed Erick Gonzalez to the promotion Saturday night. Early on, Gonzalez had Miller hurt — but could not put him away. Instead, Miller’s instincts kicked in, and he landed a key takedown, buying himself some much needed recovery time.
The second round saw the opposite scenario, with Miller absolutely crushing Gonzalez with a left hand over a kick. Gonzalez had dropped his hands when he fired the kick, leaving himself wide open to the knockout blow.
The finish, Miller’s first knockout since UFC 200, earned him one of four Performance of the Night bonuses awarded at UFC Vegas 40. No Fight of the Night was handed out.
The other $50,000 performance bonuses went to Bruno Silva, Nate Landwehr, and Danaa Batgerel.
Mongolia’s Batgerel absolutely smashed the returning Brandon Davis on the night’s preliminary card. That victory earned him his third win inside the octagon — and his third straight finish as well. Batgerel’s only loss in the promotion came in another bonus-winning fight, a Fight of the Night against Heili Alateng back in 2019.
Silva, also on the preliminary card, stopped TUF winner Andrew Sanchez in the third round of their middleweight bout. “Blindado” has now won both his UFC outings to date.
Landwehr, meanwhile, locked an anaconda choke on Ludovit Klein to open the UFC Vegas 40 main card.
