The latest high-profile event in UFC certainly threw up plenty of entertainment and unexpected outcomes.
Israel Adesanya looked back to his best as he made a successful third defence of his middleweight crown by beating Italy’s Marvin Vettori, while in the co-main event, Brandon Moreno produced an incredible upset to win the UFC flyweight title for the first time.
Elsewhere, Leon Edwards survived a final-round scare from 36-year-old Nate Diaz to secure an important victory.
Thanks to MMA Salaries, we can now see who made what from their weekend.
‘The Last Stylebender’ reportedly earned around $1.4 million following his impressive performance, which is a staggering amount compared to his opponent, who only received $132,000 for his night’s work.
The winners of the other two high-profile fights, meanwhile, Mexico’s Moreno was remarkably only paid $382,000 for his night’s work, including his $150,000 win bonus, and Edwards received a reported $191,000. The man who Edwards defeated, by contrast, was awarded a staggering $1.1million.
Indeed, coming into this fight, the challenger Vettori was attempting to become the first Italian-born fighter to claim a UFC title and was on an impressive five-fight winning streak. ‘The Last Stylebender’, meanwhile, suffered his first loss in the Octagon earlier this year at the hands of Jan Blachowicz.
The Nigerian, however, was able to successfully remove all prior doubts as he delivered a commanding display against ‘The Italian Dream’, beating him via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45). This was certainly a more comprehensive victory than their previous encounter, where Adesanya also emerged victorious via split decision.
In his post-fight press conference, Adesanya said: “I’m slowly starting to accept it as a great performance.
“I would grade this a C-plus outing. I wanted to punch his face in more.”
It is likely that the Nigerian will next face the man who he first won the middleweight crown from in Robert Whittaker, who has looked impressive since losing the belt, and particularly looked good in his last fight against Kelvin Gastelum.
Elsewhere, in the other co-main event of the evening, Brandon Moreno became Mexico’s first UFC flyweight champion by securing a third-round submission victory over Brazil’s Deiveson Figueiredo.
The 27-year-old produced a stunning upset by making Figueiredo tap out to a rear-naked choke in the third-round of the contest.
The night’s other highly-anticipated encounter saw Edwards overcome Diaz. ‘Rocky’ largely controlled the pace of the fight through his range of kicks, but did suffer a scare in the final minute of the bout as Diaz almost managed to knock him out. Edwards was, however, able to hold on for the win.
The next UFC Fight Night is set to take place on June 19 in Las Vegas, where Chan Sung Jung is due to face Dan Ige.
