UFC Vegas 95 was heavily derided heading into the Fight Night card, with little to offer on paper and a number of fighters dropping off due to injury.
You’d be forgiven if you checked out early, had you tuned in at all, as the early going of the show was a mixed bag at best. While Youssef Zalal had a strong performance and Karol Rosa vs. Pannie Kianzad turned out to be a fun fight, there simply wasn’t a lot going on.
Luckily, the top half of the main card showed up and showed out, starting with Chepe Mariscal dominating a tough but outmatched Damon Jackson over the course of three rounds. A pair of 30-25 scores (the third judge had it 30-26) showed just how dominant Chepe had been, though missing weight for the fight denied him any bonus money.
Instead, the UFC went with three individual performances in terms of bonus cash, on a night where no Fight of the Night handed out. Sorry, Rosa vs. Kianzad, no post-fight bonus for you.
Serghei Spivac, however, earned one Performance of the Night awards for his first round arm-bar submission of Marcin Tybura. The fight was a rematch, with Spivac avenging an earlier loss and moving to 4-1 across his last five fights.
Zalal, for his rear-naked choke finish of Jarno Errens, and Toshiomi Kazama, who put Charalampos Grigoriou away with a triangle after being knocked down early in the second, picked up the two remaining Performance bonuses.
As it turned out, those were the only three finishes on the ten-fight card. All three bonus winners claim an extra $50,000 USD on top of show/win money and outfitting pay.
