{"id":522273,"date":"2026-07-12T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/522273\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T11:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:58:12","slug":"ufc-329-bonuses-paddy-pimbletts-perfection-picks-up-prime-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/522273\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 329 bonuses: Paddy Pimblett\u2019s perfection picks up prime prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated July 12, 2026, 3:42 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The UFC handed out\u00a0four bonuses after Saturday’s card in Las Vegas, including one to the co-main event winner.<\/p>\n

After UFC\u00a0329, four fighters picked up an extra $100,000 for their performances at T-Mobile Arena. Additionally, eight fighters got $25,000 extra checks for finishes that weren\u2019t bonus-winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Check out the list of winners below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fight of the Night: Brandon Royval, Lone’er Kavanagh ($100,000 each)<\/p>\n

Brandon Royval (18-9 MMA, 8-5 UFC) and Lone’er Kavanagh (10-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) put on one of the best flyweight fights in company history on the main card. Royval, a former title challenger, was plenty bloodied up by Kavanagh \u2014\u00a0and vice versa \u2014\u00a0by the time they entered the third round. But after back-and-forth scrambles both on the canvas and on the feet the first 10 minutes, Royval took over on the mat late and locked up a body triangle and rear-naked choke that forced Kavanagh to tap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Performance of the Night: Paddy Pimblett<\/a> ($100,000)<\/p>\n

Paddy Pimblett (24-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) could not have asked for a better performance than he gave in the co-main event when he put Benoit Saint Denis (17-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) to sleep with a D\u2019Arce choke less than a minute into their lightweight contenders bout. He predicted before the fight that BSD would shoot and he\u2019d put him to sleep \u2013\u00a0and he did just that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Performance of the Night: King Green ($100,000)<\/p>\n

King Green (36-17-1 MMA, 17-12-1 UFC) pulled off an all-timer of a comeback. He was beaten up and bloodied by Terrance McKinney (18-9 MMA, 8-6 UFC) in the first round of their grudge match. But with less than 30 seconds left, he landed, hurt McKinney to the body a couple times, then put him away with just one second left on the clock in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Robert Whittaker ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Robert Whittaker (27-9 MMA, 18-7 UFC) had a stellar UFC debut at light heavyweight when he took it to Nikita Krylov (31-12 MMA, 12-10 UFC). Early in the third round, the former middleweight champion drilled Krylov and, it appeared Krylov thought on replays, broke his jaw to force the finish 61 seconds into the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Gable Steveson ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Gable Steveson (4-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) was around a 30-1 favorite \u2014\u00a0in theory, the largest in UFC history \u2014\u00a0for his promotional debut against Elisha Ellison (5-3 MMA, 0-2 UFC). And those Ellison hung tough and landed a few decent punches, he eventually was overwhelmed for a first-round TKO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Adrian Yanez ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Adrian Yanez (18-6-1 MMA, 7-3-1 UFC) picked up the biggest win of his career when he took out former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt (15-8 MMA, 10-8 UFC) with a first-round TKO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Luke Riley ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Luke Riley (14-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) stayed unbeaten and took out Kai Kamaka III (18-8-1 MMA, 2-3-1 UFC) with a TKO1 in the first round, and though it appeared it may have been a slightly early stoppage, the Brit made no apologies for the win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Damian Pinas ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Damian Pinas (10-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) delivered a one-hitter quitter on Cesar Almeida (7-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) that left him with an opportunity for a huge follow-up on the canvas \u2014\u00a0but he had mercy and waited for the ref to step in with a huge finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Ryan Gandra ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Ryan Gandra (10-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) landed one of the most picture-perfect left hands you\u2019ll ever see and had Zach Reese (10-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC) out in the first round. A follow-up shot on the ground was academic for the Brazilian, who has two quick finishes in his UFC fights: 40 seconds in his debut, and 75 seconds in Saturday\u2019s follow-up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finish bonus: Alessandro Costa ($25,000)<\/p>\n

Alessandro Costa (17-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) picked up his first submission in the UFC and sent Cody Durden (18-11-1 MMA, 7-9-1 UFC) home with a messed-up face in the curtain jerker. With Durden cut on the face, Costa took him down, quickly took his back and got a palm-to-palm rear-naked choke that had the blood squirting from Durden\u2019s head when he tapped. Costa has finishes in eight of his past nine fights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC\u00a0329 resultsMax Holloway def. Conor McGregor via TKO (injury) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 1:09<\/a>Paddy Pimblett def. Benoit Saint Denis\u00a0via technical submission (D\u2019Arce choke) \u2013 Round 1, 0:52<\/a>Mario Bautista def. Cory Sandhagen via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)<\/a>Brandon Royval\u00a0def. Lone’er Kavanagh via submission (rear-naked choke) \u2013 Round 3, 3:40<\/a>King Green def. Terrance McKinney\u00a0via TKO (punches) \u2013 Round 1, 4:59<\/a>Robert Whittaker def. Nikita Krylov via TKO (punches) \u2013\u00a0Round 3, 1:01<\/a>Gable Steveson\u00a0def. Elisha Ellison via knockout (punches) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 2:31<\/a>Adrian Yanez def. Cody Garbrandt via TKO (strikes) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 2:47<\/a>Luke Riley\u00a0def. Kai Kamaka III via TKO (strikes) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 3:03<\/a>Wang Cong def. Tracy Cortez\u00a0via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)<\/a>Damian Pinas\u00a0def. Cesar Almeida via knockout (punch) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 4:44<\/a>Farid Basharat def. John Garza\u00a0via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)<\/a>Ryan Gandra def. Zach Reese\u00a0via TKO (punches) \u2013 Round 1, 1:15\u00a0<\/a>Alessandro Costa def. Cody Durden\u00a0via submission (rear-naked choke) \u2013\u00a0Round 2, 2:19<\/a>\"\"\/\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 12, 2026, 3:42 a.m. ET The UFC handed out\u00a0four bonuses after Saturday’s card in Las Vegas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[124958,111,139,69,258748,213,258749,258750,173124,124963,258751,151725,258752,124961],"class_list":["post-522273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accessfree","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sourcemma-junkie","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsufc","tag-sstsnufc","tag-tagmartial-arts","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagpaddy-pimblett","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagufc-329","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}