UFC Vegas 103 was an entertaining affair with four fighters earning bonuses.

Manel Kape (20-7) earned an extra $50K Performance of the Night bonus for a stoppage over Asu Almabayev (21-3) in the flyweight headliner. Kape thoroughly outstruck Almabayev from the opening bell, never allowing the Kazakh to implement his wrestling. “Starboy” eventually delivered too much damage on Almabayev, forcing the referee to step in at 2:16 of the third round, ending his undefeated streak that dated back to 2017. However, the Angolan seemingly scraped Almabayev twice in the left eye, which went unpenalized.

The second POTN bonus went to undefeated heavyweight debutant Mario Pinto (10-0) for his knockout win over Austen Lane (13-6). Pinto got dropped by Lane in the opening frame before rallying back to put the former football defensive end to sleep with a left hook-straight right combo early in the second round.

Meanwhile, Morocco’s Nasrat Haqparast (18-5) and Argentina’s Esteba…

Manel Kape may have cleared the final obstacle between him and a long-sought shot at the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight crown.

The former Rizin Fighting Federation titleholder was awarded an anticlimactic technical knockout over Asu Almabayev in the third round of their UFC Fight Night 253 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Referee Mike Beltran stepped in to wave it off 2:16 into Round 3, even though Almabayev (21-3, 4-1 UFC) seemed to be lucid and defending himself.

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Kape (21-7, 6-3 UFC) was the aggressor from the start. He unleashed lightning-fast punches from odd angles and called upon bulletproof takedown defense against the Kazakhstani grappler. Almabayev—who entered the cage on a 17-fight winning streak—emerged for the second round clearly bothered by the damage he sustained to his left eye. Kape zeroed in on it, sometimes with punches and sometimes with what appeared to be clear fouls—replays showed he raked the eye…

Sherdog's live UFC Vegas 103 coverage will begin Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET. The event is also known as UFC Fight Night 253. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Temirov (-115), Johnson (-105)Round 1 A bit leaner than originally intended, the UFC rolls into the Apex station with an even 10 fights on the billing. The event is light on ranked relevance and meaningful matchups from a championship perspective, but each bout means the world to the participants so they cannot be dismissed before they happen. The action starts off in the flyweight division, with a solid fight that has no place in the curtain jerker spot. With four straight wins in his pocket, rising talent Johnson (17-6, 6-4 UFC) wants to go five in a row and stamp himself as a contender at 125 pounds. Standing in his way will be streaking Uzbekistan native Temirov (18-3, 1-0 UFC), who may have only earned one win in the UFC thus far but enters the bout the victor in his last 10 outings. Someone’s win streak is…