There should be exactly zero surprise to see the UFC’s third-ever Twister submission take home a Performance of the Night award following UFC Vegas 78.
The Fight Night card got off to a blazing start on Saturday, with every single preliminary card bout ending inside the distance. Among those fights, Da’Mon Blackshear was paired up with Jose Johnson in a bantamweight bout — allowing Blackshear to pull off the aforementioned Twister sub.
Only two others have taken place inside the octagon, the last coming in 2019, when Bryce Mitchell caught Matt Sayles in the rarely-seen, highly-painful hold. Before that, it was The Korean Zombie in 2011, submitting Leonard Garcia.
For his historic effort, Blackshear picked up one of four Performance of the Night bonuses handed out at UFC Vegas 78. No Fight of the Night was announced for the event, which took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
The other big winners on the night included Khalil Rountree Jr., for his knockout of Chris Daukaus. A former heavyweight, Daukaus was looking to snap a three-fight skid by moving to 205 pounds, a skid that had seen him stopped on all three occasions. It didn’t go as planned, with Rountree landing a nasty KO instead.
Iasmin Lucindo picked up $50,000 in bonus money for her submission of Polyana Viana. And Marcus McGhee made it two bonuses in two UFC fights, following his KO of JP Buys.
