UFC Fight Night 279 bonuses: Crazy twister finish gets extra $100K

The UFC handed out four bonuses after Saturday’s card in “Sin City,” including one for one of the rarest submissions in the game.

After UFC Fight Night 279, four fighters picked up an extra $100,000 for their performances at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Additionally, four fighters got $25,000 extra checks for finishes that weren’t bonus-winners.

Check out the list of winners below.

Vinicius Oliveira (24-4 MMA, 5-1 UFC) moved up to featherweight for the first time and took out Andre Fili (25-14 MMA, 13-13 UFC) with a brutal TKO late in the second round. Oliveira landed combinations up and down with Fili along the fence and wrapped him up after some brutal elbows in a bit of a comeback after a back-and-forth first.

Manel Kape (23-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC) got worked over by Kyoji Horiguchi (36-6 MMA, 9-2 UFC) for the first 10 minutes, and things were looking to go the same way in the third. But then Kape came out of nowhere and caught Horiguchi, put him on the canvas, and pounded him until he got the stoppage. The fight was a rematch from Rizin years ago, and may have gotten Kape the next title shot at flyweight.

Murtazali Magomedov (11-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) looked like a true force to be reckoned with at featherweight in his UFC debut when he took out Melsik Baghdasaryan (8-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) with just the fourth twister submission in promotion history. Magomedov not only stayed unbeaten, but kept his 100 percent submission rate intact, as well.

Levan Chokheli (15-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) didn’t make the kind of impression while in Bellator that would have necessarily had anyone thinking he’d come to the UFC and light up Leon Shahbazyan (12-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) for a 23-second finish. But that’s what happened. WIth ex-UFC champ Merab Dvalishvili in his corner, he went after Shahbazyan (older brother of longtime UFC fighter Edmen) low, then at the midsection and crumpled him for a brilliant debut.

Bia Mesquita (8-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) got rocked against Melissa Mullins (7-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in the first round, and looked like she might be in for a fight. But when Mullins stayed on top on the canvas and tried to work ground-and-pound, Mesquita, an elite jiu-jitsu black belt known as the “Lady GOAT” of that discipline, made a slick armbar transition to get her third UFC submission.

Christian Rodriguez (13-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) wrapped up Hyder Amil (11-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) with a nasty modified guillotine/ninja choke and put him out cold in the first round – but only after he drilled him with a wicked head kick that dropped him to the canvas.

Navajo Stirling (10-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) had to walk through some adversity against light heavyweight mainstay Ion Cutelaba (20-12-1 MMA, 9-11-1 UFC), but eventually took over and pounded out his latest stoppage. Cutelaba threatened with a tight guillotine choke in the first round, but Stirling worked through it, then took over in the second round.