Yahoo Sports Yair Rodriguez Earns Bonus for Destruction of BJ Penn (UFC Phoenix Bonuses)
The Ultimate Fighting Champion announced the winners of the performance-based fighter bonuses stemming from UFC Fight Night 103 on Sunday at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. Yair Rodriguez, Oleksiy Oliynyk, Augusto Mendes, and Frankie Saenz took home the $50,000 incentives.
The bantamweight bout between Mendes and Saenz earned Fight of the Night honors. The two went to war for fifteen minutes with Mendes staggering Saenz several times throughout the fight. Saenz dropped Mendes with elbow in the second frame. Both fighters had moments close to putting the fight away. The judges scored the back-and-forth battle for Mendes by split decision.
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Rodriguez banked a Performance of the Night Bonus for his second-round technical knockout finish of returning legend BJ Penn in the fight card's main event. Penn, who hadn't fought since 2014, came out of retirement to try and make another UFC run. Rodriguez stopped it dead in its tracks. The 24-year-old Mexican hit Penn with everything in his arsenal. He landed head kicks, spinning kicks, front kicks and punches. Penn was slow and made for an easy target for the striking specialist. Early in the second frame, Rodriguez landed a front kick followed by a right hand that sent Penn crashing to the canvas. He finished with a series of unanswered punches.
Heavyweight Oleksiy Oliynyk was awarded a Performance of the Night bonus for his first-round finish of Viktor Pešta on the preliminary fight card. Pesta took Oliynyk down and found himself locked in an Ezekiel choke. He mounted Oliynyk before realizing that the choke was in deep. He was forced to tap out. It was the tenth time the Ukrainian has finished a fight with an Ezekiel choke.
UFC Fight Night 103 featured 12 fights. Six ended in decisions, four by knockout, and two were finished with submissions.
