An extra bonus was handed out at UFC Vegas 89 for a history-making disqualification on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
There was the standard “Fight of the Night” bonus awarded to the pair deemed to have the best scrap on Saturday at UFC APEX. Then there were two “Performance of the Night” bumps given to highlight-reel finishers.
And then there was a totally new category, hopefully one that doesn’t become a regular thing: “Bite of the Night.” That was the punny way to award Andre Lima for the unpleasant experience of getting chomped during his fight with Igor Severino on the preliminary card.
Severino was cut from the UFC after being disqualified, and UFC CEO Dana White threw Lima an extra $ 25,000 – on top of an initial bonus of $ 25,000 – for getting a tattoo to memorialize his highly unusual win.
Here are the other bonus winners from UFC Vegas 89:
A preliminary-card slugfest between Jarno Errens and Steven Nguyen was an easy choice for “Fight of the Night,” with both getting an extra $ 50,000 for a contest Errens took by unanimous decision.
Fast-rising bantamweight Payton Talbott picked up an extra $ 50,000 for his dominant performance and stunning finish of Cameron Saaiman on the main card.
Main card opener Fernando Padilla also picked up an extra $ 50,000 for his standing D’Arce choke of Luis Pajuelo.
Last night (Sat., March 23, 2024), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) remain inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC Vegas 89. At this point, it’s a step up for the average Apex main event to feature a former champion, even if Rose Namajunas did enter having lost her previous two bouts. “Thug Rose” aimed to get her career back on track opposite Amanda Ribas, while the rest of the main card featured a Heavyweight brawl, one struggling Middleweight former prospect, and two skilled young Bantamweight up-and-comers.
By and large, that’s the usual mix for nights such as these. Let’s take a look back over at UFC Vegas 89’s best performances and techniques:
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Namajunas Picks Up First Flyweight Win
I don’t believe I’m the only one who found Rose Namajunas vs. Amanda Ribas underwhelming.
Plain and simple, there are changes Namajunas needs to make to her game to compete at Flyweight. Namely, she has to throw more. Her punches are not sitting opponents down like they did at Strawweight. At no point in their shared 25 minutes did she manage to stun Ribas, who is not known for her durability. If the knockout is less realistic, volume becomes king once more.
Really, Namajunas won this bout because she capitalized on Ribas’ mistakes. Bad mistakes. Ribas threw away three separate rounds by attempting crappy headlock throws and landing in bottom position. It’s a bad takedown, and it was really frustrating to watch Ribas continually fall onto her back when she was doing fairly well on the feet.
It was better than the co-main event between Justin Tafa and Karl Williams, but that ain’t saying much!
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Gritty Golden Boy
Edmen Shahbazyan scored his first comeback win last night.
We’ve seen Shahbazyan score first-round finishes before, and we’ve seen him fall apart late when faced with fatigue and adversity. Historically, it’s one or the other for “Golden Boy,” who has just a single decision win in 13 fights. When AJ Dobson came out unexpectedly hot and stunned Shahbazyan with punches almost right away, the situation looked really bad for Shahbazyan.
Credit to him, however, Shahbazyan stayed in the fight. He survived some bad spots and worked back to his feet. When the two separated following some wrestling, both were fatigued. Nevertheless, Shahbazyan stepped back into the pocket, stood his ground, and returned the favor by knocking down Dobson.
Was it a good sign that Dobson was able to hurt Shahbazyan? Not really. Still, Shahbazyan hung tough when his reputation said he would fold, and that deserves props.
Nothing he threw missed. It’s that simple! From very early in the fight, Talbott was throwing power combinations and landing all three of the punches. His right leg scored with brutal consistency, both as a knee and a kick. When the two clinched up, Talbott would land multiple elbows, and his check hook floored Saaiman on two occasions. All the offensive weapons were flowing, and Saaiman couldn’t stand up to the barrage despite his best efforts.
A stellar performance from the undefeated prospect.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Return Of The Moroccan Devil
Back in 2020, Youssef Zalal made a bit of a name for himself by fighting frequently on the early Apex cards. He picked up a few wins and showed some talent, but a losing streak saw him released soon afterward. Classic Apex era stuff: fighters come and go quickly and are replaced by the next wave of prospects.
Few make it back after being released. Zalal proved himself a cut above the rest by going back to the gym, getting better, and then chipping away on the regional scene until able to score another opportunity at the prime time. When given a short-notice chance last night vs. Quarantillo, he absolutely made the most of it.
Zalal was just so sharp. His boxing, intercepting knees, and calf kicks were all timed so well, and he was sitting down on his shots more than in previous appearances. He stunned the ultra durable “Billy Q” badly, evaded his powerful swings with absolute composure, and then dominated the jiu-jitsu black belt on the floor too. He looked in complete control the entire fight, beating Quarantillo more easily than anyone else and becoming the first to finish him.
It was an incredible performance.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Severino Bares Teeth
Igor Severino vs. Andre Lima was such a great fight! Two young and undefeated Brazilian prospects were putting all their skills on display. Both showed off versatile and powerful approaches to kickboxing, and there were some really great wrestling and ground exchanges as well.
Overall, Lima was the sharper and more powerful striker. However, Severino’s raw grit and relentless pace was potentially taking over in the second. We’ll never know for sure though, because Severino threw it all away by viciously biting his opponent. He was promptly disqualified and then released in short fashion.
That’s an absolute d—k move that benefitted nobody.
Additional Thoughts
Fernando Padillo defeats Luis Pajuelo via first-round d’arce choke (HIGHLIGHTS): Padillo really impressed in this win. The fight didn’t last long, but Padillo immediately demonstrated a better understanding and use of his range compared to his previous showing. He picked apart Pajuelo, landing lots of longe distance blows and forcing Pajuelo to get desperate. When the Peruvian really tried to force the action, Padillo punished him with a nasty counter shot then promptly wrapped up the neck to secure a pretty flawless victory.
Julian Erosa defeats Ricardo Ramos via first-round guillotine choke (HIGHLIGHTS): Ramos was in the midst of dropping hammers on Erosa. He stunned his foe with a right hand, scored his signature spinning elbow, and bounced Erosa’s head off the canvas with ground shots. Ramos appeared to be in complete control until the moment Erosa snatched up his neck in response to a double leg, and all of a sudden, the fight was over! “Juicy J” is quite the opportunist, and he needed this win badly.
For complete UFC Vegas 89 results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.
Rose Namajunas | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Rose Namajunas got back in the winning column on Saturday, taking a competitive unanimous decision win over Amanda Ribas in the main event of UFC Vegas 89. But while the main event had the most stakes on the card, it was a preliminary bout that stole the show when Igor Severino became the first fighter in UFC history to be disqualified for biting; he chomped on Andre Lima’s arm in just the second fight of the evening.
Following Saturday’s fight card at the UFC APEX, MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew, Eric Jackman, and Alexander K. Lee react to the event, Namajunas’s big win and “Bite-gate.”
Additionally, they discuss Edmen Shahbazyan’s great comeback, Payton Talbott’s arrival as a legitimate prospect, who took home bonuses, and Andre Lima’s ability to turn getting bit into the biggest win of the evening.
Catch the UFC Vegas 89 post-fight show above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
In just a few short hours, André Lima got his first win inside the Octagon, a new tattoo, and $ 50,000.
Making his promotional debut at UFC Vegas 89 on Saturday night, Lima went toe-to-toe with highly touted prospect Igor Severino. After an entertaining opening round and an equally exciting couple of minutes in the second, things took an unusual turn when Severino appeared to bite Lima on the bicep during a clinch against the cage wall. Lima immediately protested which prompted referee Chris Tognoni to pause the action and take a look at the replay.
However, Lima had all the evidence they needed on his arm. Brandishing a nasty-looking bite mark, the bout was immediately called off with Severino being disqualified near the halfway point of the round.
André Lima scores a big fat ‘bite bonus’ from dana white
White later confirmed in a text exchange with MMA journalist Kevin Iole that Severino had been cut. Lima’s manager also revealed that his fighter would be the first-ever recipient of the “I got f*cking bit bonus” courtesy of the UFC CEO, which would land Lima an extra $ 25,000 for the trauma.
In a hilarious twist to the story, Lima commemorated the incident by tattooing Severino’s bite mark on his arm which immediately earned him an extra 25k from White.
“I was going to give him 25k,” White wrote on his Instagram stories. “Now I’m giving him 50k. This is awesome!”
With the win, Lima moved to 8-0 in his mixed martial arts career while Severino dropped to 8-1.
After the UFC Vegas 89 fights conclude at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, the big winners will answer questions from the media during the post-fight press conference.
A women’s flyweight bout between former two-time strawweight champion Rose Namajunas and eighth-ranked Amanda Ribas headlined the fight card. Namajunas picked up her first win in the 125-pound division defeating Ribas by unanimous decision.
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Las Vegas is the place for rash decisions, and Andre Lima made the most of Sin City by getting a tattoo to memorialize his status as the first UFC fighter to get a bonus for getting bitten inside the octagon.
UFC Vegas 89 hadn’t even concluded when Lima hit a local tattoo studio and got some new ink – highlighted by the bite mark his opponent, Igor Severino, gave him in one of the most bizarre endings to a UFC fight in history.
UFC CEO Dana White liked Lima’s move, and after promising a bonus to the fighter for his troubles, he doubled the money from $ 25,000 to $ 50,000 for the completely new octagon category of bonus: “I got f****** bit.”
Check out Lima’s tattoo.
Lima was ruled the winner via disqualification after officials got a good look at his arm, which all but eliminated any questions about whether Severino had taken a bite out of him in the clinch during the first round.
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Severino initially denied biting Lima before visual evidence showed otherwise. UFC CEO Dana White subsequently confirmed that Severino would be released from the UFC. The UFC exec also indicated Severino could be disciplined by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which oversaw the event at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
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Lima, who picked up his first UFC win on Saturday, had a considerably better night in Las Vegas. And he left with a permanent memory of a wild night.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images 
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images 
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images 
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images 
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images 
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