UFC 251 bonuses: Jiri Prochazka earns $50k for incredible KO win over Volkan Oezdemir

Light heavyweight contender Jiri Prochazka was among the four fighters who earned $50,000 bonus awards for their performances at UFC 251.

The UFC announced the bonus awards following the event. The UFC handed out two “Performance of the Night” bonuses to Prochazka and bantamweight Davey Grant, while “Fight of the Night” went to former women’s strawweight champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade for their exciting rematch on the main card.

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Jiri Prochazka knocked out Volkan Oezdemir in devastating fashion in the main event of the preliminary card. It was Prochazka’s first fight in the UFC and he took care of business by taking out one of the top-10 fighters in the division with an incredible KO that was one of the bright spots on the card. The win upped Prochazka’s win streak to 11-in-a-row, and after beating Oezdemir like this, he will likely get a top-five opponent next.

Davey Grant finished Martin Day with a vicious third-round KO in a bantamweight bout that opened up the preliminary card. After Day knocked Grant down in the first round, Grant evened things up in the second. The third round was close but Grant was able to land a bomb and put Day out and not bring the judges into the equation. After the event, Grant said that he had broken his jaw in the first round yet still came back to win the fight.

As for Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade, they fought to a spirited split decision with the judges siding with Namajunas by scores of 29-28, 28-29, and 29-28. Both women stood and traded for the majority of the 15 minutes in what was a very fun fight to watch. The pair first met back at UFC 237 last year, with Andrade winning the fight via slam KO. Both women also won “Fight of the Night” for their first encounter.

There were some fighters who missed out on the bonuses despite tremendous performances. One of them in Petr Yan, who had an incredible fifth-round TKO over Jose Aldo to capture the vacant UFC bantamweight title. Amanda Ribas also stopped Paige VanZant with a first-round submission to open up the main card. And Makwan Amirkhani tapped out Danny Henry with an anaconda choke on the prelims. Unfortunately, the UFC only gives out four bonuses so these fighters were left empty-handed at the end of the night.

Do you think the UFC got the bonuses right for UFC 251?