UFC Vegas 52 Bonuses: Jessica Andrade Scoops $50,000 For Historic Opening Round Finish
Former undisputed UFC strawweight champion, Jessica Andrade managed to land an extra $50,000 post-fight bonus following UFC Vegas 52 last night in Las Vegas, Nevada – stopping the #10 ranked contender, Amanda Lemos with a stunning, history-making standing arm triangle win in the first round.
Jessica Andrade, who made her first Octagon outing at the strawweight limit since July 2020 in last night’s main event outing against compatriot, Lemos, entered her third promotional headliner off the back of a dominant flyweight win over Cynthia Calvillo back in September at UFC 266.
The Parana native managed to make good on her weight class return to boot last night, stopping Lemos with an Octagon-first standing arm triangle in the opening round.
Linking up with Lemos inside the clinch, Jessica Andrade quickly powered her fellow South American to the Octagon fence, sinking up in an eventual arm-triangle – and without tripping Lemos to the canvas, forcing the tap from a vertical position.
Earning a post-fight bonus, Andrade’s standing arm triangle win earned her a Performance of the Night bonus – scooping her eighth career submission win to boot.
The night’s co-headliner also produced our other Performance of the Night bonus, with Peruvian grappler, Claudio Puelles stopping promotional veteran, Clay Guida with a stunning opening frame kneebar submission win. Puelles managed to land his whopping third kneebar win in the UFC with last night’s victory, and comes as the only one in UFC antiquity to land more than one kneebar win.
Earning Fight of the Night bonuses, welterweight strikers, Dwight Grant and Sergey Khandozhko battled in a hard-fought two round affair – with the latter eventually rallying and finishing Grant with a knockout after suffering a knockdown of his own.
Jessica Andrade landed the strawweight championship with a slam KO win over current best, Rose Namajunas
With Andrade’s victory, the Brazilian moves herself into prime position to likely challenge for strawweight gold in the future again, ahead of next month’s undisputed title rematch between two-time opponent, champion, Rose Namajunas, and challenger, inaugural division-best, Carla Esparza.
