UFC 211 was unquestionably the biggest card the MMA promotion has put on so far this year. It also more than lived up to expectations, producing a number of fantastic fights, and strong finishes. So with that in mind, there were a lot of options as far as the bonus situation went.
In the end, the UFC announced after the event that heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic and Jason Knight would take home the Performance of the Night bonuses. Newcomer Rashad Coulter and opponent Chase Sherman earned the Fight of the Night award.
All four fighters are now $50,000 richer.
Knight (17–2) finished Chas Skelly in the third round of their preliminary card fight via TKO just thirty-nine seconds into the round. After the bout, he called for Dana White to award him a bonus in his post-fight interview. White apparently obliged.
In the main event, Stipe Miocic (17–2) overcame a couple of sharp leg kicks to knock out Junior dos Santos at 2:22 of round number one. That earned him the other Performance of the Night bonus.
Coulter and Sherman put on an incredible back-and-forth war, with Coulter surviving multiple close calls and showing a ton of heart in his UFC debut. Both men were added to the card as replacement fighters, and wound up facing each other. Sherman (10-3) secured the win in the second round, finishing Coulter with an elbow, and likely saving himself from being cut by the promotion in the process. While Coulter drops to 8-2, his debut against Sherman and the extra 50K certainly made for a memorable first trip to the octagon.
There were easily a number of other fights in the running for bonuses at UFC 211, including Frankie Edgar’s demolishing of Yair Rodriguez, and the co-main event battle between champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Jessica Andrade. Had Eddie Alvarez vs. Dustin Poirier not ended in a No Contest due to illegal knees, it would have been in the running as well.
