UFC 308 ended up living up to, or even exceeding, the generous amount of publicity it received, and Dana White was happy. The UFC president praised the athletes who competed at the Etihad Enviornment in Abu Dhabi and announced additional post-fight bonuses after Saturday's event.
Ilia Topuria was one of three Performance of the Night winners after defending his featherweight title by becoming the first to knock out Max Holloway.
Khamzat Chimaev earned one via his first-round submission of Robert Whittaker in the co-main event. Chimaev forced a punch on the former 185-pound champion, who suffered a jaw injury during the choke.
Typically, only two performance bonuses are awarded per card plus a Fight of the Night, but White felt compelled to also award the other main card highlight.
Undefeated middleweight Sharabutdin Magomedov also received a bonus for his double backfist knockout of Armen Petrosyan in the opening fight of the main card.
“It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai each received the Fight of the Night award for their bloody back-and-forth match at catchweight. Rebecki won a split decision over Orolbai in preliminary action.
All official bonus winners will receive an additional $50,000 in addition to their fight purse. White also announced that he would reward Ibo Aslan, who only needed 51 seconds to take down Raffael Cerqueira, although he acknowledged that Aslan would not receive the full $50,000.
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