UFC 252 Bonuses: Octagon Newcomers Earn $50K Apiece for ‘Fight of the Night’

First fight of the night! This card delivered from the start.

[ B2YB @ToyoTires ] pic.twitter.com/aXhQc53wY3

— UFC (@ufc) August 16, 2020

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It was a memorable — and profitable — Ultimate Fighting Championship debut for both Kai Kamaka III and Tony Kelley.

The featherweight competitors earned “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their entertaining scrap in the opening bout at UFC 252 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Both Kamaka III and Kelley landed 114 significant strikes apiece, but Kamaka III also added five takedowns to capture a hard-fought unanimous decision triumph.

Elsewhere, Daniel Pineda received a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award in his promotional return, as he scored a technical knockout of Herbert Burns in a featured featherweight encounter. Pineda ended the contest with a brutal barrage of elbows from the mounted crucifix position at the 4:37 mark of Round 2.

Finally, Virna Jandiroba garnered the card’s other $50,000 “Peformance of the Night” check by making short work of Felice Herrig in a preliminary strawweight encounter. The former Invicta FC titlist becoming the first person to finish Herrig, tapping her adversary with an armbar 1:44 into the first frame.