Petr
Yan and Cory
Sandhagen engaged in a high-level championship matchup at
UFC 267, and the bantamweights were compensated appropriately
for their efforts.
Yan and Sandhagen earned “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000
apiece for their co-main event bout at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on
Saturday. After five competitive rounds, Yan claimed the interim
135-pound belt with a unanimous decision triumph, setting up a
title unification rematch with Aljamain
Sterling at a future event.
Elsewhere, Glover
Teixeira received a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check
for his dominant win over Jan
Blachowicz in the evening’s light heavyweight championship
headliner. The 42-year-old Brazilian grounded his opponent in both
the first and second rounds before eventually securing a rear-naked
choke submission at the 3:02 mark of Round 2 for his sixth
consecutive Octagon triumph.
Finally, welterweight prospect Khamzat
Chimaev garnered the card’s other $50,000 “Performance of the
Night” award by making short work of Jingliang
Li in a featured welterweight tilt. Chimaev wasted little time
taking his adversary down and from there, he chipped away with
ground-and-pound before advancing to back mount to lock in a
rear-naked choke that rendered “The Leech” unconscious at the 3:16
mark of Round 1.