Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili each left Etihad Arena $100,000 richer after their trilogy fight won Fight of the Night at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Alexander Volkanovski and Lone’er Kavanagh took the two Performance of the Night awards, which were also worth $100,000 apiece. Aaron Bronsteter posted the winners on X, and MMA Junkie and Sherdog confirmed the list shortly after.
The four big bonuses add up to $400,000, and the UFC kept paying from there. MMA Junkie reported that five more fighters picked up $25,000 finish bonuses on a card that produced seven stoppages. That brings the night’s total to $525,000 by my math, which is a fun number to throw at anyone who claims the company never spends.
The title fights earned it
Yan and Dvalishvili had split their first two fights, with each man winning one in dominant fashion. The third fight was the first one that was actually close. Merab owned Rounds 1 and 2 the way Merab owns everything, with nonstop takedown attempts and a pace that would make a Peloton instructor ask for water. Yan started landing heavy combinations in Round 3 and kept building in Round 4 as Dvalishvili slowed. MMA Junkie had the fight tied heading into the fifth, and Yan won the final round to keep his bantamweight title. You can’t ask a champion for much more than that.
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In the main event, Volkanovski put his featherweight belt on the line against the undefeated Movsar Evloev. The first round was competitive. In Round 2, Volk reversed a takedown attempt, landed damaging combinations, hurt Evloev with clean shots late and finished him with ground-and-pound in the closing seconds. It was his first finish in three years and the second defense of his second featherweight title reign.
Kavanagh’s bonus came against Ramazan Temirov in a fight the oddsmakers had as a pick’em. Temirov got some offense in early, but Kavanagh’s combinations came in faster and more accurately than Temirov could handle. A barrage of strikes ended it late in the first round.
The $25K club
Aaron Pico dropped Losene Keita with a big early shot and finished him with follow-up strikes for a TKO. It was his first UFC finish, after his first UFC win came earlier this year.
Dominick Reyes won as an underdog against Azamat Murzakanov. He wobbled Murzakanov with a head kick, then put him down with a straight left. That’s back-to-back wins for Reyes.
Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev ate one good punch from Nikita Krylov, nearly submitted him in the clinch, then abandoned the submission and finished him with strikes midway through Round 1. He has now finished seven straight fights in the opening round.
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Abus Magomedov was too sharp for Australian prospect Cam Rowston and finished him with a guillotine choke in Round 1.
Kody Steele got the first finish of the night when he floored Noah Gugnon with a right hand in the opening round. MMA Junkie wrote that the referee nearly had to choke Steele to pull him off.
My take: the right four people got the $100K. Yan won a fifth round against a guy who has made a career out of breaking people late, and Volkanovski stopped an undefeated contender for his first finish in three years. Those are the two performances I’ll be showing my friends who think the old guard is cooked. My one complaint is Yakhyaev. Seven consecutive first-round finishes should earn more than a $25,000 consolation check, so somebody in the UFC office should start booking that man against a name.
