UFC 308 bonuses and aftermath: Khamzat Chimaev and four others bag $50K, Max Holloway's missed record opportunity, and more
UFC 308 proved to be a thoroughly entertaining event which provided us with several exciting moments. The event took place on October 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The fight card was headlined by a highly intriguing featherweight title bout between Max Holloway and champion Ilia Topuria. Going into the fight, Holloway had 22 UFC wins on his resume, the third-most in the promotion's history. The 32-year-old had an opportunity to get to the second place of this list alongside Andrei Arlovski and Donald Cerrone, but came up short.
'El Matador' delivered a masterful performance on fight night and finished Holloway in the third round. He was awarded the 'Performance of the Night' award worth $50,000 for his efforts. This was his fifth fight bonus in the promotion.
With the victory, Topuria became the only fighter to score a knockout victory against 'Blessed'. He is also currently the only UFC champion under the age of 30.
The co-main event featured an exciting five-round middleweight showdown between Khamzat Chiaev and former champion Robert Whittaker. The fight was a short-lived affair as 'Borz' submitted Whittaker with a face crank in the opening round.
The performance earned him his sixth post-fight bonus in the promotion. After the victory, Chimaev now has the fourth-longest active win streak (4) in the UFC's middleweight division.
Shara Magomedov and Armen Petrosyan opened up the main card of UFC 308. The Dagestani fighter impressed many MMA fans with his spectacular spinnng backfist knockout in the third round of the fight. He also received a 'Performance of the Night' bonus of $50,000.
A thrilling catchweight (160 pounds) scrap between Mytybek Orolbai and Mateusz Rebecki stole the show at UFC 308. Their highly enertaining back-and-forth battle ended in a split decision victory for Rebecki.
Their encounter was named the 'Fight of the Night' and both fighters received an additional cheque of $50,000 each.
Ibo Aslan also had an impressive outing as he scored a 51-second knockout against Raffael Cerqueira. He was not awarded a bonus but Dana White assured that he would be taken care of by the promotion.
UFC 308 featured six fighters with undefeated records and apart from Cerqueira, each one of them of managed to keep their undefeated record intact.