Myktybek Orolbai’s catchweight needs cost him $50,000 bonus, Dana White confirms
The UFC handed out two bonuses after Saturday’s card in Azerbaijan – but the fighters who got them got a double dose.
UFC on ABC 8 featured just two finishes in 12 fights. The rest were decisions. One of those finishes at Baku Crystal Palace was from Nazim Sadykhov (11-1-1 MMA, 4-0-1 UFC), who got the crowd going – finally – when he rallied to put away Nikolas Motta (15-6 MMA, 3-3 UFC) in the second round after a stretch of seven straight decisions to open the show.
Motta had a near-stoppage of his own in a sequence in which he unleashed more than 70 punches in a wild first round. But Sadykhov survived it and rallied to get his own finish.
After the event, UFC CEO Dana White announced Sadykhov and Motta were winners of $100,000 each instead of the customary $50,000. Although there was a second finish on the card that ordinarily would have been a bonus winner, Myktybek Orolbai needed an extra 10 pounds during his fight week weight cut ahead of his win over Tofiq Musayev. The UFC treated that as a weight miss as far as bonuses are concerned, even if Orolbai didn’t officially miss weight because the bout was moved to a 165-pound catchweight.
