Singapore’s UFC 275 was heavily derided ahead of time in some quarters, supposedly for a lack of depth.
Those hot takes fizzled when the event arrived, with wall-to-wall action care of thrilling finishes, surprising upsets (and near upsets), and a title changing hands atop the card in a classic light heavyweight scrap.
That aforementioned main event saw Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka battling all the way into the fifth and final round, something few, for all their hot takes, had predicted ahead of time. At 42, Teixeira had not only hung in there with the wild, unorthodox striking of the Czech challenger, he’d actually begun winning on the feet. But on the grappling side of things, the champ got sloppy, and late in a fight he was on his way to winning, he was caught in a rear-naked choke.
An exhausted Teixeira tapped, all of 28 seconds away from retaining his title. Instead, Prochazka’s hand was raised in victory, in one of the most memorable light heavyweight fights in ages. Certainly memorable enough to secure Fight of the Night.
Performance of the Night bonuses? Well, those went to… everyone who had a finish on the card. Taking a page out of the UFC London card back in March, all fighters with a finish on Saturday’s card were handed a Performance bonus. Those included Silvana Gomez Juarez, who knocked out Na Liang in an early strawweight fight, and Weili Zhang, who floored Joanna Jedrzejczyk in their highly anticipated rematch. Two strawweight knockouts in a single night — now there’s something you don’t see every day.
Promotional newcomer Hayisaer Maheshate, Jack Della Maddalena, and Jake Matthews also picked up Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC 275.
