Weili Zhang, Li Jingliang, Heili Alateng and Danaa Batgerel each earned $50,000 bonuses for their performances at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 15 event.
Zhang and Jingliang each won “Performance of the Night” honors. Alateng and Batgerel earned the “Fight of the Night” award. UFC president Dana White announced the winners following the event.
In the main event, Zhang (20-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) needed just 42 seconds to take out Jessica Andrade (20-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) to win the women’s stawweight title. Andrade was making her first attempted defense of the belt after winning it in her home country of Brazil earlier this year. Zhang won the title in front of her own home fans in China and became the first Chinese champion in UFC history.
In the co-feature, Jingliang (17-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC) handed Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (21-6 MMA, 7-2 UFC) the first knockout loss of his career when he finished him with just nine seconds left in the fight. Jingliang likely was on his way to a decision win, but took that question out of the equation with the late finish. This bonus is Jingliang’s fifth in his past six fights.
Early on in the prelims, Alateng (13-7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Batgerel (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in a fight that saw Alateng lose a point without warning for illegal strikes. He took the bout with a trio of 29-27 scores.
UFC on ESPN+ 15 took place Saturday at Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, China. The main card streamed on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN.
