Max
Holloway’s brilliance and Calvin
Kattar’s toughness earned them a little extra bonus money on
Saturday night.
Holloway and Kattar received “Fight of the Night” honors and
$50,000 apiece for their five-round battle in the
UFC on ABC 1 headliner at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Holloway
put on a clinic in earning a trio of lopsided scorecards from the
cageside judges, but Kattar kept swinging right up until the final
horn in a memorable kickoff to the promotion’s 2021 schedule.
Elsewhere, Jingliang
Li earned a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check by
spoiling the return of Santiago
Ponzinibbio in a featured welterweight affair. A massive
counter left hook from “The Leech” floored Ponzinibbio and a
follow-up hammerfist snapped his foe’s seven-bout winning streak
4:25 into Round 1.
Finally, Alessio
Di Chirico garnered the evening’s other $50,000 “Performance of
the Night” bonus for flipping the script on viral knockout artist
Joaquin
Buckley in a main-card middleweight matchup. Di Chirico brought
an emphatic end to a three-fight skid when he knocked out his foe
with a head-kick and follow-up ground strikes at the 2:12 mark of
the opening round.