Islam Makhachev left no doubt that he was the star of the one of the UFC’s biggest shows of the year.
Not only did Makhachev defeat Charles Oliveira in Saturday’s UFC 280 main event to become the UFC lightweight champion, he also earned an extra $50,000 by picking up his first Performance of the Night bonus. It’s his second UFC bonus overall after scoring a Fight of the Night alongside Arman Tsarukyan in August 2019.
The evening’s other Performance of the Night went to Belal Muhammad, who finished Sean Brady with a standing TKO to run his unbeaten streak to nine straight fights. Muhammad’s past four wins have all come against ranked opponents, Brady, Vicente Luque, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, and Demian Maia.
The UFC 280 Fight of the Night award went to Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan. O’Malley scored a controversial split decision win over the former bantamweight champion, but there was no questioning the entertainment value of the bout as both fighters busted each other up for three rounds.
