UFC 209 took a major blow before it even got off the ground when Khabib Nurmagomedov had to be pulled from the card due to a bad weight cut, but a number of stars stepped up Saturday night to put on bonus winning performances. Following the event, held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, UFC officials announced that Fight of the Night honors were awarded to David Teymur and Lando Vannata’s co-main event showdown.
Teymur entered the night in the shadow of Vannata’s UFC 206 highlight reel knockout of John Makdessi, but managed to pull off a unanimous decision win over the favorite. Teymur (6-1) improves his UFC record to 3-0 with the victory. Vannata (9–2), meanwhile, falls to 1-2 in the promotion, but has won a Fight of the Night or Performance bonus in all three of his UFC fights to date.
Also picking up a bonus Saturday was Darren Elkins (22-5), who picked up a performance bonus for his come-from-behind TKO of Mirsad Bektic (11-1). Elkins, bloodied and battered, certainly lived up to his “The Damage” tattoo in the bout. Iuri Alcantara (35-7) picked up the other performance bonus for his own comeback win against Luke Sanders (11-1). Sanders, with girlfriend Becky Lynch of WWE fame cheering him on, battered Alcantara through the first round. However, in the second, Alcantara managed to catch Sanders in a kneebar that Sanders quickly realized he could not escape from.
Each fighter is now $50,000 richer thanks to their performance. Teymur vs. Vannata wound up being the fight that replaced Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson on the main card.
