UFC Rotterdam post-fight bonuses: Taisumov, Volkov among $50K winners

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands was home to a mostly overlooked night of fights, with six (T)KOs, two submissions and four unanimous decisions. UFC Rotterdam saw Alexander Volkov finish Stefan Struve, despite receiving a nasty cut in the opening round via a massive jump knee from the “Skyscraper.” Fans were also treated to a fantastic fight between Marion Reneau and Talita Bernardo that saw the “Belizean Bruiser” victorious by way of (T)KO. As mentioned earlier, the event was flying under the radar and didn’t even have a trending hashtag on Twitter, which is a shame, because the card was fairly entertaining.

Performances of the Night: Mairbek Taisumov and Zabit Magomedsharipov

Zabit Magomedsharipov opened the fight with some monstrous kicks, including a showtime kick. After getting Mike Santiago up against the cage, he unloaded hard punches and elbows to win the round. In the second stanza, Magomedsharipov landed even more incredulous combinations and a gnarly ground assault that saw him get the rear-naked choke finish and a cool $50,000 to go along with it.

In the opening minute of the Mairbek Taisumov vs. Felipe Silva fight, there wasn’t much action. Silva winged and missed and Taisumov did the same, but once the minute mark had passed, Silva wasted absolutely no time in launching a big right. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t land, but Taisumov’s crushing counter did, and planted the Brazilian, Ric Flair style. For his troubles, Mairbek will go home with an extra 50 Gs, baby!

Fight of the Night: Alexander Volkov vs. Stefan Struve

Alexander Volkov and Stefan Struve put on one hell of an entertaining fight. After Struve landed a big jump knee that opened up a cut under Volkov’s left eye in the first round, the two waged a back and forth battle that saw Volkov demonstrate why he’s one of the most accurate strikers in MMA. Despite a few eyepokes from Struve, Volkov kept up his assault until the referee stepped in to call a halt to the action. Volkov got the TKO at 3:30 of Round three and both men cashed in on a $50K bonus.

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About the author

Stephie Haynes

Stephie Haynes has been covering MMA since 2005. She has also worked for MMA promotion Proelite and apparel brand TapouT. She hosted TapouT’s official radio show for four years before joining Bloody Elbow in 2012. She has interviewed everyone there is to interview in the fight game from from Dana White to Conor McGregor to Kimbo Slice, as well as mainstream TV, film and music stars including Norman Reedus, RZA and Anthony Bourdain. She has been producing the BE podcast network since 2017 and hosts four of its current shows.