Tallison Teixeira, Quillan Salkilld, and Kody Steele all made fantastic first impressions at UFC 312.
The first-time octagon competitors all earned an extra $50,000 at Saturday’s event in Sydney, with Teixeira and Salkilld earning Performance of the Night bonuses for their fast finishes, and Steele winning Fight of the Night alongside Rongzhu for their exciting preliminary clash.
Teixeira impressed on the main card with a 35-second finish of veteran heavyweight Justin Tafa. The towering Teixeira pushed Tafa to the fence and cracked him with an elbow, which stunned Tafa and left him easy pickings for follow-up strikes that forced a stoppage.
Salkilld actually did Teixeira one better, needing just 19 seconds to put away Anshul Jubli. The recent Contender Series signing caught Jubli with a right hand early and it turned out to be the only strike he needed to land as Jubli could not recover.
Fight of the Night going to Rongzhu and Steele came as no surprise as the featherweights threw down for 15 minutes, with Rongzhu consistently getting the better of the spirited Steele. Both men are leaving Australia with bonus checks for their efforts.
