The UFC on Fox 29 headliner may very well take its toll on Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje down the road, but it will boost their bank accounts in the more immediate future.
Poirier and Gaethje received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their lightweight brawl on Saturday night at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. Poirier attacked primarily with punches to the head, while Gaethje chose to brutalize his adversary’s legs. Ultimately, it was Poirier’s approach that paid off, as he polished off Gaethje with a series of punches to earn a technical knockout victory 33 seconds into the fourth stanza.
Elsewhere, Alex Oliveira captured a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” paycheck for his victory over Carlos Condit in the evening’s welterweight co-main event. Despite taking the bout on short notice, the Brazilian “Cowboy” was able to lock in a guillotine choke and force Condit to tap out at the 3:17 mark of the second round.
Finally, Adam Wieczorek got the card’s other $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award and a little bit of history, to boot. After being grounded for much of the opening round of his heavyweight bout with Arjan Singh Bhullar, Wieczorek turned the tables in round two, as he scored the second omaplata submission — Ben Saunders was the first — in UFC history at the 1:59 mark.