The UFC Vegas 119 Performance of the Night bonuses were not the least bit surprising.
On a night that saw a Twister submission and a little bit of revenge served up in the main event, it was easy to see who would be taking home an extra $100,000. Seven finishes peppered the 12-fight card overall, but two stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Of course, the rarely seen twister pulled off by newcomer Murtazali Magomedov was always going to be one of those. The undefeated, 11-0 featherweight hit the move on Melsik Baghdarsayan, making history in the process. Only three other fighters have landed twisters in the UFC: Magomedov joins The Korean Zombie, Bryce Mitchell, and Da’Mon Blackshear in the history books; coincidentally, Zombie and Mitchell were also competing as featherweights when they hit it. Like Magomedov, TKZ hit it in his UFC debut (after competing in the WEC, which was later merged into the promotion to introduce the lighter weight classes).
Manel Kape, meanwhile, earned a come-from-behind TKO victory in the third round of the night’s main event. After losing to Kyoji Horiguchi under the RIZIN banner back in 2017, he earned some revenge on Saturday. And, quite possibly, a title fight. What is a definite is that he took home a Performance bonus, and the accompanying 100K.
Fight of the Night at UFC Vegas 119 went to Vinicius Oliveira vs. Andre Fili, which saw Brazil’s Oliveira finish Fili by TKO in the second round.
The remaining finishers on the card all get $25,000 for their stoppages; those are Navajo Stirling, Christian Rodriguez, Bia Mesquita, and Levan Chokheli.
