UFC Kansas City Bonuses: Malcolm Wellmaker Earns $50K in Memorable Debut

Malcolm Wellmaker followed his spectacular Dana White's Contender Series win with a similar effort in his Octagon debut.

Wellmaker earned a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his knockout of Cameron Saaiman in a preliminary bantamweight clash at UFC Kansas City on Saturday night. The Augusta, Georgia, native sent his foe crashing to the floor with a counter right hook, abruptly ending their bout at the 1:59 mark of Round 1. Wellmaker earned a UFC deal with a first-round KO of Adam Bramhald on the Contender Series this past August.

Elsewhere, Mingyang Zhang received a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award for spoiling Anthony Smith’s retirement bout in the evening’s light heavyweight co-main event. Zhang busted his opponent open with an elbow early and went to work from there, ultimately finishing “Lionheart” with a barrage of elbows on the canvas 4:03 into the opening stanza.

Finally, Randy Brown and Nicolas Dalby took home “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for a thrilling scrap at welterweight. While Dalby landed a knockdown in the opening period, “Rude Boy” mangled his adversary’s nose and struck the fight’s decisive blow: a right hook that rendered the Dane unconscious at the 1:39 mark of Round 2.