UFC 323 Bonus Report: Iwo Baraniewski one of four ‘POTN’ winners

The Octagon returned to T-Mobile Arena for tonight’s UFC 323 event, and four fighters wound up taking home performance bonuses.

The pay-per-view event was headlined by a men’s bantamweight title fight rematch featuring Petr Yan challenging Merab Dvalishvili. The bout proved to be a return to glory for Petr Yan. The Russian was able to utilize some amazing takedown defense and beautiful striking to better Merab Dvalishvili for the majority of their five-round affair. Yan was able to hurt ‘The Machine’ on multiple occasions and left the now former champion bloody and bruised after twenty-five minutes of thrilling action.

UFC 323 was co-headlined by a men’s flyweight title fight featuring Joshua Van challenging Alexandre Pantoja. The contest resulted in a terrible injury just 26-seconds into the opening round. After throwing a head kick which was partially blocked, Alexandre Pantoja proceeded to fall back onto his hands. During that awkward fall, the Brazilian wound up either dislocating his elbow and or snapping his arm. It was a gruesome injury and what that left Bruce Buffer saying “And New” as Joshua Van was awarded the TKO win.

Following the conclusion of tonight’s event, UFC officials announced at the post-fight press conference that 4 fighters would be taking home performance bonuses.

Fight of the night: Bantamweight fighters Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili each pocketed $50k for their thrilling war in tonight’s UFC 323 main event. ‘No Mercy’ ultimately won the contest by unanimous decision to once again become the promotion’s bantamweight champion.

Performance of the night: Manuel Torres earned an extra $50k for his first-round KO victory over Grant Dawson in tonight’s featured prelim (see that here).

Performance of the night: Iwo Baraniewski pocketed an extra $50k for his first-round knockout victory over Ibo Aslan (see that here).

Are you surprised by any of the performance bonuses handed out by Dana White and company following the conclusion of tonight’s UFC 323 event at T-Mobile Arena? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!