UFC Vegas 98 bonuses and aftermath: Headliners and two others bag $50K, Grant Dawson ties Sean O'Malley in little-known record, and more
UFC Vegas 98 was held on October 12 at the UFC APEX Facility in Enterprise, Nevada. A five-round flyweight clash between Tatsuro Taira and former title challenger Brandon Royval headlined the card.
Royval walked into the fight with a split decision victory over Brandon Moreno. Taira, on the other hand, was undefeated with a 16-0 record prior to the fight on October 12.
The contest turned out to be a thrilling back-and-forth affair that lasted all 25 minutes. In the end, 'Raw Dawg' got his hand raised via split decision. The three judges scored the bout 48-47, 47-48 and 48-47 in favor of Royval.
The encounter was awarded the 'Fight of the Night' honors and both flyweights took home a bonus cheque of $50,000 each. Thsi marked Royval's fifth and Taira's fourth post-fight bonus in the UFC.
Clayton Carpenter and Lucas Rocha opened up the fight card for UFC Vegas 98 in a flyweight scrap. Carpenter made light work of his opponent and submitted him with a rear-naked choke in the second round of the fight. He was awarded a 'Performance of the Night' bonus worth $50,000 for his efforts.
Ramazan Temirov and C.J. Vergara locked horns in a flyweight mtchup in the prelims of the event. The bout was a short-lived affair as Temirov scored a knockout in the opening round of the fight.
He was also named among the winners of the 'Performance of the Night' bonus and took home an additional sum of $50,000.
Grant Dawson defeated Rafa Garcia via second-round knockout in a lightweight encounter. With the victory, Dawson is now tied with Sean O'Malley and Dan Ige for the third most wins (10) by a Dana White's Contender Series veteran.
Sal D'Amato was the dissenting judge on three of the fight that took place on the UFC Vegas 98. He was in the minority among the three judges while scoring Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira, Daniel Rodriguez vs. Alex Morono and Julai Polastri vs. Cory McKenna.