UFC 312 had just three finishes, so there was going to be an odd man out when it came to Performance of the Night bonuses.
That odd man turned out to be Gabriel Santos, who submitted Jack Jenkins in the night’s featured prelim. Instead, Tallison Teixeira and Quillan Salkilld earned performance bonuses for some big finishes on Saturday. Both men were making their promotional debuts, and both did so with quick finishes. In the first fight of the night, Salkilld landed a right hand that put down India’s Anshul Jubli. The lightweight fight was over in just 19 seconds, the second-fasted debut in UFC 155lb history.
Tallison Teixeira took just a little bit longer, 35 seconds, to put away Justin Tafa. That debut on the main card saw Tafa go down off a knee to the body and elbows.
Fight of the Night honors went to the debuting Kody Steele and Rong Zhu. On his second stint with the UFC, Road to UFC alum Zhu entered coming off a loss and badly in need of a win. He got just that in an active scrap that saw him almost finish Steele in the opening round.
All four bonus-winning fighters at UFC 312 will pick up $50,000 on top of their purse, outfitting pay etc. UFC CEO and President Dana White announced an attendance of 18,253 at the Qudos Bank Arena, for an Australian indoor record gate of $7.7 million.
