It should come as no surprise to see Edson Barboza and Sodiq Yusuff collecting the Fight of the Night bonus at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 81.
The Fight Night card was an understated affair on paper that delivered a very solid main card — a main card that took home all of the post-fight bonus money, in fact.
It was Yusuff vs. Barboza leading the way, proving to be an electrifying pairing right out of the gate. Clearly planning to overwhelm the 37-year old Brazilian veteran, Yusuff took the fight right too him, and in the opening round had Barboza down and covering up, raining down punches. Yusuff took the veteran route, not punching himself out, while the ref showed a bit of leeway in allowing Edson to continue on.
What resulted after that was a thrilling five-round fight with Barboza connecting with a high-light reel spinning wheel kick later in the bout. Yusuff was on skates when that landed, but Barboza couldn’t pull the trigger on a finish. Instead, he collected the win on the scorecards, notching his second straight victory. And a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus which Yusuff will also collect.
Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC Vegas 81 went to Jonathan Martinez, who chopped away at the legs of Adrian Yanez prior to earning a leg kick TKO in round two, and Michel Pereira. “Demolidor” didn’t take long to finish short-notice replacement Andre Petroski with strikes, in Pereira’s first fight as a middleweight under the UFC banner.
