The UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden, UFC 295, is in the books, and UFC President Dana White opened up his pocketbook following the event.
In addition to the usual Fight of the Night and two Performance of the Night bonuses, White announced several additional Performance awards, with all fighters collecting the usual $50,000.
Fight of the Night honors at UFC 295 went to a bloody, entertaining fight between lightweights Nazim Sadykhov and Viacheslav Borshchev— a bout that ended in a draw. And in what may be a rarity, there was little uproar over that draw, with most seeing it as a very even fight helped by a 10-8 round from two judges.
Performance of the Night bonuses, meanwhile, went to Diego Lopes, Jessica Andrade, Benoit Saint-Denis, Tom Aspinall, and Alex Pereira. Pereira and Aspinall both captured gold on Saturday, with Aspinall collecting his first belt in the promotion — an interim heavyweight title in the wake of Jon Jones being sidelined for surgery.
Pereira captured his second UFC championship, after previously winning middleweight gold. He stopped ex-light heavyweight champ Jiri Prochazka to claim the promotion’s vacant 205lb title.
Former women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade knocked down Mackenzie Dern four times en route to a knockout victory in the pair’s main-card match-up, giving the Brazilian a much-needed win. Saint-Denis stopped Matt Frevola, while Lopes put away Pat Sabatini in their respective bouts.
