UFC on ESPN 26 Bonuses: Six Fighters Receive $50K Paychecks

Billy Quarantillo and Gabriel Benitez took home an additional $50,000 apiece for their work in the Octagon on Saturday night.

Quarantillo and Benitez received “Fight of the Night” honors for their entertaining featherweight scrap at UFC on ESPN 26 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Both fighters landed knockdowns in the bout, but Quarantillo was the one who walked away with his hand raised after a series of punches from back control forced the TKO stoppage 3:40 into Round 3.

Meanwhile, four “Performance of the Night” bonuses were handed out, as Miesha Tate, Mateusz Gamrot, Rodolfo Vieira and Rodrigo Nascimento all received an additional $50,000 for their efforts.

In her first fight in more than four years, Tate was impressive in a third-round stoppage of Marion Reneau in the evening’s co-main event. “Cupcake” took Reneau down, moved to back mount and earned a TKO with punches from that position 1:53 into Round 3.

Gamrot, meanwhile, wasted little time in putting away Jeremy Stephens in a featured lightweight clash. The former KSW champ shot for a low single-leg and was able to lock in a kimura to force a tapout just 65 seconds into the openzing stanza.

Vieira, a decorated jiu-jitsu champion, relied on his striking for two rounds before jumping on Dustin Stoltzfus’ back and sinking in a rear-naked choke in Round 3 of their main-card middleweight matchup. Stoltzfus tapped after falling to the canvas at the 1:53 mark of the period.

Finally, Nascimento rallied from a difficult opening round to defeat Alan Baudot via technical knockout in a preliminary heavyweight fight. A barrage of punches to the head and body from Nascimento had his foe covering up near the fence before the bout was waved off 1:29 into Round 2.