Cong Wang was a late addition to the list of bonus winners at UFC on ESPN 62.
Wang set a high standard for the night in the first preliminary bout of the card against Victoria Leonardo at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. “The Joker,” who has appeared at the face-offs dressed as her moniker, took just 62 seconds to shut the lights out on Leonardo with a blistering right hand.
Wang understandably expected a $50,000 bonus for the highlight-reel finish, which was also the fastest by a debutant in UFC flyweight history. However, the undefeated Chinese standout was surprised to see her name missing from the list of bonus winners, which initially included “Performance of the Night” bonuses for Gerald Meerschaert and Michael Morales and “Fight of the Night” for Caio Borralho and Jared Cannonier. Wang expressed her disappointment on social media, promising an even flashier finish in her next performance, which got the attention of Dana White.
In an extraordinary development, White promised Wang $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus, blaming the delay on his absence from Vegas.
“Wake up and find out there is no POTN,” Wang wrote on Instagram. “Next fight you will see [a] more spectacular finish [UFC]. Don’t play with Joker again!”
White replied: “I was out of town and watched the fight [at Mystique Boston] on TV. You looked AMAZING. I’m adding another [‘Performance of the Night’] bonus for [you]. Congrats get 50K.”
A former Wushu world champ, Asian Games medalist and amateur boxing World Championship medalist, Wang also has a kickboxing win over former UFC champ Valentina Shevchenko from 2015 in her long list of achievements. Wang looks forward to running it back with “Bullet” in MMA and believes she can replicate the victory. The 32-year-old also indicated that she already has her sophomore UFC outing booked for the promotion’s return to her home country of China on Nov. 23 in Macau.
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