UFC 169 Bonuses, Attendance, & Gate: Abel Trujillo Banks Big Bucks

UFC 169 is in the books from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and the event saw Nova Uniao fighters Renan Barao and Jose Aldo retain their belts in dominant fashion.

However, neither of those championship performances earned a bonus at UFC 169. It was a strange night of fights that saw the record for most decisions at a UFC event, and no submission was witnessed. That caused the “Fight of the Night” and “Knockout of the Night” bonuses to move from the traditional $50,000 up to $75,000.

And dangerous lightweight prospect Abel ‘Killa’ Trujillo had a hand in both of them. Nearly both submitted and knocked out in his opening main card bout against Jamie Varner, Trujillo somehow weathered the storm to come back and nail Varner with a crushing right hand to earn a nice $125,000. Trujillo was in big trouble; however, his thunderous power can obviously bail him out of a tough situation.

Varner banked $75,000 as well, but you can bet he would have rather had the win that he assuredly thought was his. He’s looked both great and lackluster in his return to UFC, and tonight’s performance, although thrilling, won’t help his stock in the fast-moving UFC lightweight division.

The event had an announced attendance of 14,308 with a live gate of .651 million, as announced by UFC president Dana White at the UFC 169 post-fight press conference.

There’s certain to be a big fallout from what transpired tonight, so keep your eyes peeled on LowKick MMA!

Photo: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports