UFC Fight Night 272 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas ended with big money flying around — and plenty of raised eyebrows over who got rewarded.
The UFC handed out four $100,000 bonuses and four additional $25,000 finish bonuses after the event, but the selection of Tommy McMillen vs. Manolo Zecchini as “Fight of the Night” became a flashpoint. McMillen earned a sub-4-minute TKO win in that bout, which still took the evening’s top fight honors.
Finishing performances were front and center. Alice Pereira picked up a Performance of the Night bonus for a second-round knee finish of Hailey Cowan, while Alessandro Costa earned the same award for a second-round body-shot finish of Stewart Nicoll. Renato Moicano closed the show in the lightweight main event by submitting Chris Duncan with a second-round rear-naked choke.
Several other stoppages, however, were only attached to $25,000 finish bonuses. Tresean Gore submitted Azamat Bekoev in the third round, Ethyn Ewing finished Rafael Estevam in the third after a dominant performance, and Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev tapped Brendson Ribeiro with a first-round rear-naked choke.
The bonus picture looked even murkier to some observers given that Kai Kamaka III’s 15-minute split-decision win over late-notice replacement Dakota Hope went unrewarded, despite marking Kamaka’s return to the UFC after nearly five years away. McMillen, a training partner and protege of former UFC champion Sean O’Malley, emerged as one of the night’s biggest financial winners as the bonus debate swirled in “Sin City,” with some fans invoking “Fight of the Night” and “Dana White Privilege” in the aftermath.
