Dana White was pressured into agreeing to hand out an extra Fight of the Night bonus on Thursday as a way to celebrate International Fight Week but the UFC president said at the UFC 303 post-fight press conference Saturday night he didn’t feel more than one fight from the card deserved Fight of the Night.
Instead, the organization handed out two additional Performance of the Night bonuses following UFC 303.
Featherweights Cub Swanson and Andre Fili won Fight of the Night for their preliminary bout that went the distance with Fili edging out a split decision.
Light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira earned a Performance of the Night bonus for his highlight-reel knockout of Jiri Prochazka in the main event.
Bantamweight Payton Talbott and middleweight Joe Pyfer both made quick work of their opponents to earn a performance bonus.
Talbott needed only 19 seconds to put away Yanis Ghemmouri and Pyfer took 85 seconds to finish Marc-André Barriault on the prelims.
Macy Chiasson got the final performance bonus for her technical knockout win over Mayra Bueno Silva on the main card. Chiasson split Bueno Silva’s eyebrow open with an elbow in the second round of their bantamweight contest and the bout was stopped by the cage-side physician.
That’s not typically the type of win that earns a bonus but the only other finish was Jean Silva knocking out Charles Jourdain with an uppercut. Chiasson was the beneficiary of Silva missing weight the day prior. Fighters that miss their contracted weight are not eligible for post-fight bonues.
Pereira, Pyfer, Talbott, Swanson, Fili and Chiasson, each netted an additional $50,000 performance bonus on top of their respective fight purses.