Every single finish on the UFC Vegas 65 card earned a Performance of the Night bonus.
That meant finishing fighters were batting 1.000 at the Fight Night event, which only had four finishes in total — all TKOs, as a matter of fact.
The end result was that Kennedy Nzechukwu, Jack Della Maddalena, Muslim Salikhov, and Natalia Silva all earned $50,000 Performance bonuses. No Fight of the Night was awarded at the event, which was thrown into chaos for a moment when the original main event of Derrick Lewis vs. Sergey Spivak fell through while the card was already underway.
Making the most of the larger spotlight, Kennedy Nzechukwu was able to fight through a low blow to finish Ion Cutelaba in the newly promoted main event. Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba was originally booked as the evening’s co-feature, and the Nigerian finished the fight just over a minute into the second round.
With a knee having hurt Moldova’s Cutelaba, powerful punches put him away. A 2018 Dana White’s Contender Series winner, Kennedy Nzechukwu has now won two straight.
Also winning 50K on Saturday was Natalia Silva, in just her second UFC fight. She put away newcomer Tereza Bleda with a spinning back kick to the face, just as the Czech fighter was shooting in, finishing her off with ground n’ pound.
Maddalena, long a top welterweight prospect for those watching beyond the UFC, took less than a round to put away Danny “Hot Chocolate” Roberts. That’s the Australian’s third first round finish in three UFC fights, and may just land him a spot on UFC 284 at home in Perth next February.
Finally, Muslim Salikhov put away the tough-as-nails Andre Fialho at UFC Vegas 65 to earn his own Performance of the Night bonus. Multiple spinning kicks and body attacks landed for Salikhov, but Fialho refused to go down. Instead, the ref wound up saving him from himself.
