A three-round war and three shocking individual performances captured the bonus money at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
The early start for the overseas card was a welcome change for some fans, but the going got a little iffy early thanks to some frankly bad judging in the Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Carlos Leal fight. Add in a couple of injuries, to heavyweight Chris Barnett and ex-lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos, and things were off to a rocky start.
The card’s eventual Fight of the Night helped turn all that around, however. Late on the preliminary card, Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai engaged in a three-round war that left Rebecki bloodied and Orolbai with swelling under one eye that practically screamed orbital fracture. It was almost a shock that the fight was allowed to continue, but as close as it was, it was for the best. Rebecki would get the nod, via a split decision, leaving a stunned Orolbai to contemplate what more he could have done.
Perhaps $50,000 U.S. will take the sting off. Three other fighters will also take home that amount following UFC 308, as three Performance of the Night bonuses were also awarded. Shara Magomedov was a lock for his double spinning backfist KO of Armen Petrosyan, a move never before seen in the UFC. Just call it the Shara Backfist at this point (the self-stylized pirate later stated he’d practiced the move in the early days of his Muay Thai training, but had never landed it in a fight).
Khamzat Chiamev, returning from a year away, steamrolled ex-middleweight champ Robert Whittaker for his own Performance bonus. An early takedown saw to it that Chimaev was in control the entirety of the fight, eventually locking up a neck crank. Whittaker quickly tapped, with sources later confirming a dislocated jaw to Cageside Press (not to mention damage to the teeth and gums).
The final Performance of the Night bonus at UFC 308 went to Ilia Topuria, who in the main event became the first man in the UFC to stop Max Holloway, via third-round TKO. It’s just the second stoppage loss of Holloway’s career (the other coming by submission).
