UFC 298 had a number of solid fights, with the Anaheim-based Pay-Per-View card flying by with only a few dull moments. So it should be no surprise that there was an extra bonus handed out when the dust had settled.
Closing out the preliminary card, it was Amanda Lemos and Mackenzie Dern picking up Fight of the Night honors in a thrilling strawweight scrap. Recent title challenger Lemos appeared to have Dern hurt and in trouble early, knocking Dern down and bloodying her badly, a storm of ground n’ pound following. Dern somehow survived, however, and made a fight of it, threatening off her back and relying on her world-class jiu-jitsu to keep her in the fight.
Lemos came away with the win, but Dern proved to have considerable heart.
Three Performance of the Night bonuses were awarded at UFC 298, per UFC President Dana White. Those went to Mingyang Zhang, Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez, and headliner Ilia Topuria. Zhang, a Chinese light heavyweight making his promotional debut, flatlined fellow newcomer Brendson Ribeiro on the preliminary card, then called for both a bonus and a fight with Alex Pereira at UFC 300. He got one of the two.
Hernandez kicked off the main card with a rear-naked choke submission of Roman Kopylov in the pair’s middleweight bout, while Topuria closed out the night by dethroning Alexander Volkanovski with a right hand to become the UFC’s new featherweight champ.
All five bonus-winning fighters at UFC 298 will receive an extra $50,000 for their efforts.
