UFC 209 bonuses: You better believe Darren Elkins' blood-drenched comeback was worth $50,000

LAS VEGAS – Darren Elkins, Iuri Alcantara, David Teymur and Lando Vannata each earned $50,000 fight-night bonuses at Saturday’s UFC 209 event.

Elkins and Alcantara earned “Performance of the Night” awards, and Teymur and Vannata took home “Fight of the Night” honors.

UFC officials announced the winners following the event, which MMAjunkie attended.

Teymur (6-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) was a sizable underdog against Vannata (9-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), but he went toe-to-toe in the standup game in the lightweight co-main event – and wound up getting a 30-27 sweep of the judges’ scorecards. The fight may have been closer than the scorecards indicated – but Teymur did enough in all three rounds to pull the upset.

Elkins (22-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) put on arguably one of the best comebacks in UFC history when he stopped Mirsad Bektic (11-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) for a third-round TKO in their featherweight fight on the preliminary card. Elkins was flat-out devastated by Bektic, a previously unbeaten 7-1 favorite, in the first round and his face was a bloody horror show. Elkins started to rally in the second, but still found himself down 20-17 on all three scorecards going to the third thanks to a 10-8 first from Bektic. But Elkins stayed with it and hurt Bektic against the cage – then landed a head kick that ended the fight for an utterly improbable comeback.

Just like Elkins, Alcantara (35-7 MMA, 9-4 UFC) was getting torn apart by Luke Sanders (11-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) after the first round. Sanders pummeled Alcantara on the ground for the first five minutes. And the second round didn’t start well for the Brazilian, either. But out of nowhere, Alcantara was able to latch on to Sanders’ leg and forced him to tap to a kneebar for a big comeback and a mild upset in their bantamweight bout on the prelims.

UFC 209 took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

For more on UFC 209, check out the UFC Events section of the site.