A war between Evloev and Lopes takes home Fight of the Night

UFC 288 will go down in the record books. There were exciting fights throughout where the UFC brass gave three bonuses on the night.

The dust has settled and UFC 288 from Newark, NJ has come and gone with much excitement from the fans. We saw the pound-for-pound king in the bantamweight division Aljamain Sterling retain his title via a split decision against “Triple C” Henry Cejudo. There were many mixed feelings about the decision, but it was a very closely contested fight.

The rest of the fight card delivered on all levels with excitement, especially a fight in the featherweight division between Movsar Evloev and short-notice newcomer Diego Lopes. That fight was an absolute barn burner from the first bell to the last. Lopes showed that he belonged with the best at the top of the featherweight division giving Evloev a then 16-0 undefeated prospect an extremely tough fight.

Many people including Evloev didn't give Lopes much of a chance to get the win on Saturday but he had Evloev hurt on multiple occasions. Even with a great showing from Lopes, Evloev was able to gain his composure and utilize his grappling and experience to get the job done. Dana White and the UFC brass thought that the fight was so good they gave them the Fight of the Night bonus.

UFC 288 Bonuses

The UFC gave out three bonuses for this weekend's festivities at UFC 288. One that we know was the Fight of the Night between Movsar Evloev which stole the show. Then the UFC gave out two performance bonuses to Yan Xiaonan and Matt Frevola.

Yan Xiaonan really did the unthinkable at UFC 288. She absolutely starched the dangerous Jessica Andrade in the very first round of their fight. Xiaonan closed as a sizable underdog against the former straweight champion but looked like she should have been the favorite from start to finish. She was too quick, too powerful, and eventually caught Andrade with a beautiful counter right that set her down for the finish.

We knew going into the fight between Drew Dober and Matt Frevola that it was going to be pure violence and that is certainly what it was. Dober and Frevola started out a bit slow with a feeling-out process but then things started to heat up fast as the fight progressed. Eventually, Dober and Frevola started to exchange in the pocket until Frevola hit Dober with a big right hand that sat him down. He then followed up with ground and pound to get the job done.

UFC 288 will go down for the record books as one of the best events to grace New Jersey. As Dana White has eluded to, the next time they come back to New Jersey it will be in Atlantic City.