ABU DHABI – Khabib Nurmagomedov, Ottman Azaitar, Belal Muhammad and Muslim Salikhov each earned $50,000 bonuses for their performances at Saturday’s UFC 242 event.
All four earned “Performance of the Night” honors; no “Fight of the Night” bonus was handed out. UFC officials announced the winners following the event, which MMA Junkie attended.
Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC) retained his lightweight title and stayed unbeaten with a third-round submission of interim champ Dustin Poirier (25-6 MMA, 17-5 UFC) in the main event.
On the prelims, Azaitar (12-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) picked up one of the scariest knockouts in recent memory when he starched Teemu Packalen (8-3 MMA, 1-3 UFC) in the first round and left him shaking on the canvas.
Just prior to that, Muhammad (16-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) picked up the first submission win of his career when he tapped Takashi Sato (15-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) in the third round. The win was Muhammad’s sixth in seven fights, but his first stoppage in that stretch.
And the fight before that, Salikhov (15-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) took out Nordine Taleb (15-7 MMA, 7-5 UFC) with a highlight-reel one-punch knockout to rival Azaitar’s that came an hour later.
