As the UFC’s ESPN era draws to a close, there has been a noticeable lack of Fight of the Night bonuses awarded, with the promotion instead selecting Performance bonuses more often than not.
For the fourth consecutive event, that was the case on Saturday, with four Performance of the Night bonuses instead handed out at UFC Qatar. Among the winners, the returning Kyoji Horiguchi, and short-notice heavyweight Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
A former flyweight title challenger, Horiguchi left the UFC in 2016 off a three-fight win streak, instead opting to compete for RIZIN in his native Japan. The American Top Team fighter, who does reside in Florida when in camp, would go on to simultaneously hold bantamweight gold in both RIZIN and Bellator MMA, an unprecedented feat.
While injury would see him vacate both those titles, Horiguchi would later become RIZIN’s inaugural flyweight champion, before opting to return to the UFC to make another run at flyweight gold there. He got off to a great start on Saturday, choking out Tagir Ulanbekov after out-working him for the better part of three rounds.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta wasn’t even supposed to be fighting this week, and had already earned a recent victory over PFL heavyweight champ Ante Delija. Yet with Sergey Spivac out, the Dominican heavyweight jumped in on just a few days’ notice- and knocked out Shamil Gaziev in under two minutes. He then called for a spot on the final UFC event of 2025.
Newcomer Luke Riley, and main event lightweight Arman Tsarukyan, who submitted Dan Hooker, rounded out the UFC Qatar Performance of the Night bonus winners.
