UFC Sacramento Bonuses: Urijah Faber wins bonus for Ricky Simon TKO

UFC Sacramento proved to be a very good night for Urijah Faber. Not only did he defeat Ricky Simon by first-round TKO in the co-main event of the evening, he was also rewarded a $50,000 bonus for Performance of the Night for his upset knockout win.

The bantamweight superstar Faber was among four fighters who received a POTN bonus as the UFC chose not to hand out a Fight of the Night award.

Along with Faber, his featherweight teammates at Team Alpha Male Josh Emmett and Andre Fili also won a cool $50,000 each for POTN. As well, bantamweight Jonathan Martinez won a bonus.

The UFC released the bonus award winners following the conclusion of the event.

💰 in the bank! @JonathanMyda | @TouchyFili | @JoshEmmettUFC | @UrijahFaber #UFCSacramento pic.twitter.com/g2sMFTPW9d

— UFC (@ufc) July 14, 2019

Emmett finished Mirsad Bektic in the first round by TKO to pick up his bonus. He has now won two straight fights by knockout, with his last fight resulting in a third-round KO over Michael Johnson. The win over Bektic should shoot Emmett into title contention as he is clearly a top-10 fighter at 145lbs right now.

Fili knocked out Sheymon Moraes in the first round by punches. He’s now also won two straight fights, with a decision win over Myles Jury in his last outing. However, he still needs to be a higher-ranked opponent if he wants to shoot into title contention like Emmett.

As for Martinez, his knockout wasn’t seen by as many since it was on the Fight Pass prelims. But his third-round KO via brutal knee over Pingyuan Liu was absolutely vicious, and he deserved to win his $50,000 bonus.

Of note, Germaine de Randamie did not receive a bonus despite knocking out Aspen Ladd in just 16 seconds in the main event. However, the fight was not without controversy, as many felt it was a very early stoppage, and clearly the UFC brass wasn’t as impressed with that finish as they were with some of the other knockouts on the card.

Did Dana White and the matchmakers get the bonus winners right at UFC Sacramento?