A fight cobbled together on short notice to fill in as co-main event has earned Fight of the Night honors at UFC Abu Dhabi.
The Saturday card, airing in the afternoon for most U.S. viewers, unfolded on broadcast network ABC, and was to have featured the return of Nick Diaz, taking on Brazilian welterweight Vicente Luque.
A snag arrived shortly after: Diaz had troubles obtaining a visa to travel to the UAE, something that quite frankly should have been easily foreseeable, given his name is practically synonymous with marijuana, not to mention the number of fight and non-fight related altercations and incidents he’s been involved in over the years.
Instead, Shara Bullet and Michal Oleksiejczuk were called upon to fill in, leading to a back-and-forth battle where both men were hurt at times. Shara Magomedov had to dig deep in the third but stuck it out, winning a unanimous decision on the scorecards.
That earned Magomedov and Oleksiejczuk Fight of the Night honors at the event. Performance of the Night bonuses, meanwhile, went to Joel Alvarez, who opened up the main card against Elves Brener, and Azamat Murzakanov. Light heavyweight Murzakanov returned to action after over a year on the sidelines, improving to 14-0 with a knockout of Alonzo Menifield.
All four bonus winners will pocket $50,000 for their efforts at UFC Abu Dhabi.
