UFC 278 took place Saturday night at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event was a sellout and Leon Edwards led the bonus winners.
Edwards stunned the crowd with a 5th round headkick KO of Kamaru Usman and won the UFC welterweight title. It was an easy choice for one of the $50K Performance Bonuses. Also winning a Performance Bonus was Victor Altamirano defeated Daniel Da Silva in the first fight of the night with a first round stoppage.
The Fight of the Night went to Luke Rockhold and Paulo Costa. What ended up as Rockhold’s last fight of his career was a hotly contested slugfest that Costa dominated over a very tired Rockhold. Certainly being away from the Octagon hurt Rockhold and the elevation of Salt Lake City hurt his cardio as he was visibly tired after the very first round. Still, Rockhold held up for three rounds of spurts of strong kicks and fists and finally got on top of Costa to rub his face of blood onto Costa as a final FU to the Brazilian. Rockhold had been very critical of the UFC and its pay structure and for him to receive a bonus seemed ironic. Still, it was a very entertaining fight. Also of note, it was Costa’s last fight on his contract and he also may be on his way out of the UFC.
The event drew 18,321 fans for a gate of $4,297,665 which was a sellout.
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