UFC 249 bonuses: Justin Gaethje doubles up for ninth bonus in seven UFC fights

Justin Gaethje was in a UFC fight Saturday night. Statistically, there was a 100 percent chance he was going to get an extra check.

As it happens, Gaethje is getting two extra checks with a double bonus for his main event win over Tony Ferguson to win the interim lightweight title. The pair took “Fight of the Night” honors, and Gaethje doubled up for a “Performance of the Night” award for his dominant fifth-round TKO win. Francis Ngannou got the other performance bonus, each of which was worth $50,000.

UFC officials announced the winners following the event. UFC 249 took place Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.

Gaethje (22-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) dominated former interim champion Ferguson (25-4 MMA, 15-2 UFC) to win the interim belt and set up a likely title unification bout with champ Khabib Nurmagomedov later this year. Ferguson was favored in the fight, but Gaethje, a former WSOF champ, often made it look easy with a near-perfect striking performance. Ferguson had a few moments, but heading into the final round Gaethje was up 3-1 on two scorecards and 4-0 on a fifth.

Gaethje has won a bonus in each of his seven UFC fights, and Saturday was the second time he has won a pair. In his promotional debut in July 2017, he double-dipped with his TKO of Michael Johnson.

Ngannou (15-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) needed only 20 seconds to stop Jairzinho Rozenstruik (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) on the main card and put himself in position to be next in line for the heavyweight title. Champ Stipe Miocic likely gets a trilogy fight with former titleholder Daniel Cormier next, but after that – or if that fight doesn’t come to fruition – Ngannou probably waits in the wings.

He has four straight first-round knockouts after back-to-back losses to Cormier in a title fight and Derrick Lewis. Three of those four have come in less than a minute, but his 20-second finish of Rozenstruick was the quickest of his entire career.