Video: Tristan Connelly’s reaction to $100,000 bonus after UFC Vancouver win is priceless

Tristan Connelly is having one helluva week. The Vancouver native was plucked from relative obscurity on five days notice to fight flashy madman Michel Pereira on the main card of UFC Fight Night 158. The odds were quite literally stacked against the 13-6 fighter: Vegas bookies has Pereira a -500 favorite, with Connelly a +400 dog. And not only did the Lightweight have to move up to Welterweight for the occasion, his opponent missed that higher weight as well.

But after all the spinning kicks and backflips and breakdancing ended, Connelly methodically took over the fight and ended up pulling off a decision win. And because his opponent missed weight, he also walked away with a pretty massive stack of cash.

Who knows how much UFC pays someone to step in last second to fight on the main card ... we’d assume it’s probably not much above the normal pay grade because that’s just how the promotion seems to roll. But Connelly got 20 percent of Pereira’s purse (the Brazilian earned $73,500 for his UFC debut in May) and because Pereira was ineligible for fight bonuses, UFC threw his $50,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus Connelly’s way.

Here’s Connelly on the ESPN+ post-fight show learning he was making a cool $100,000 bonus.

And all this is in American dollars, which as of this writing is worth $132,260 Canadian. Not bad for Connelly’s UFC debut, which didn’t even seem imminent just two weeks ago.