UFC Vegas 88 had to overcome a cynical MMA fanbase growing increasingly tired of both heavyweight main events and Apex shows, while offering both.
As it turned out, in the case of Saturday’s Fight Night card, it worked out for the best, though the event was not without its share of weirdness.
On that front, the women’s strawweight prelim between Jaqueline Amorim and Cory McKenna had an absolutely bizarre finish, with Amorim essentially submitting her opponent twice. Early in the sequence, Amorim, a former LFA champ, appeared to have “Poppins” ready to tap to an arm-bar. Just as she appeared to start the motion, ref Mike Beltran yelled “stop,” but Amorim released the pressure on the hold just a little early, and McKenna never actually completed the tapping motion.
The ref then ordered the action to continue, but luckily for Amorim, she never let go of the limb, and wound up finishing with the arm-bar anyway.
A new one, even in the strange world of MMA. Still, for her efforts, Amorim earned one of four Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC Vegas 88. No Fight of the Night was announced for the card.
The other big winners included main event heavyweight Marcin Tybura, who choked out a game Tai Tuivasa after a brief slugfest. Though Tybura has been bloodied early, he maintained the wherewithal to take the back, rain down an uncanny amount of ground n’ pound, and finally lock up the rear-naked choke.
Tuivasa went unconscious rather than tap, after trying to wait out the choke.
Jafel Filho, for a submission of Ode Osbourne, and Macy Chiasson, who likewise submitted Pannie Kianzad (for the second time, after the pair first fought as part of The Ultimate Fighter 28 finale), also earned Performance of the Night bonuses.
All four bonus-winners will pocket an extra $50,000 for their efforts.
