A card soft on paper served up plenty of finishes on Saturday, as UFC Vegas 72 unfolded at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
With Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon shifted to the Fight Night show after its original main event fell through, someone was bound to make the most of the opportunity now afford to them — and that turned out to be Chinese bantamweight Yadong. The Team Alpha Male fighter was already on his way to a decision win when he put away Simon with strikes in the fifth and final round, then called for a fight with either Sean O’Malley (who might just sit and wait for a title shot) or Chito Vera.
That performance earned Song Yadong one of four Performance of the Night bonuses handed out at UFC Vegas 72. No Fight of the Night was awarded.
Co-main event middleweight Caio Borralho picked up one of those Performance bonuses, meanwhile, for his submission win over Michał Oleksiejczuk. And one fight prior, another middleweight, Rodolfo Vieira, earned his own $50,000 bonus care of an arm-triangle finish of Cody Brundage.
Vieira, an ADCC champ, locking up a submission shouldn’t really come as a surprise.
The fourth and final Performance of the Night bonus awarded at UFC Vegas 72 went to promotional newcomer Marcus McGhee. A full five debuting fighters picked up wins on Saturday, but McGhee stood out thanks to a dazzling display of offsense capped off with a rear-naked choke submission of Journey Newson.
