UFC 221 Bonuses: Matthews, Li, Adesanya, ‘Formiga’ Receive $50K Awards

Jake Matthews, Jingliang Li, Israel Adesanya and Jussier da Silva were the recipients of $50,000 post-fight bonuses at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia, on Saturday night.

Matthews and Li received “Fight of the Night” honors for their featured welterweight scrap. Matthews dropped his foe in round one and hunted for a rear-naked choke, but “The Leech” survived. In round two, Li briefly turned the tide by gouging Matthews’ eye to escape what appeared to be a tight guillotine choke. Despite no point deduction, Matthews remained unfazed and was able to capture a hard-fought three-round verdict.

Elsewhere, Adesanya captured a “Peformance of the Night” award for an impressive Octagon debut against Rob Wilkinson in a preliminary middleweight affair. The Nigerian prospect was able to defend the majority of his opponent’s takedowns throughout the fight before finishing the contest with a barrage of knees and punches 3:37 into round two.

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Finally, da Silva earned the evening’s other “Performance of the Night” for his third-round submission of Ben Nguyen at flyweight. “Formiga” set up the finish by flooring his foe with a spectacular spinning back fist. Moments later, the Brazilian took Nguyen’s back and secured a rear-naked choke at the 1:43 mark.