If you weren’t up early, or local enough to Shanghai, China that it didn’t matter, you missed some entertaining finishes at UFC Shanghai on Saturday.
The Fight Night card, marking the promotion’s return to mainland China, produced some explosive action, enough so that company officials ditched the Fight of the Night bonus, and instead handed out for Performance of the Night awards following the event.
The bonuses (for now, though they are expected to rise with the onset of the Paramount+ broadcast deal in 2026) stand at $50,000 U.S.
Among the winners, headliner Johnny Walker, who weathered some heavy offense from China’s own Zhang Mingyang in the night’s main event. Mingyang appeared to have hurt Walker on several occasions, but a leg kick, several in fact, felled the Chinese light heavyweight in the second round. With Mingyang down and vulnerable, Walker piled on for the TKO finish.
Walker’s first fight, and win of 2025 was also his first victory since May of 2023.
Kyle Daukaus was fighting in the UFC for the first time since 2022 when he faced Michel Pereira in a middleweight battle on the UFC Shanghai preliminary card. An odd placement for such a high-profile fight, and it was Daukaus earning a knockout finish inside of a minute, though Pereira would briefly protest.
Charles Johnson, who knocked out flyweight prospect Lone’er Kavanagh, and Uran Satybaldiev, who flashed shades of Aleksei Oleinik with an Ezekiel choke submission of Diyar Nurgozhay in the night’s curtain jerker, won the remaining two Performance bonuses.
