Tommy McMillen apparently treated his first UFC bonus like a Las Vegas mission statement. The unbeaten featherweight says he stayed awake for three days after bankrolling a $100,000 Fight of the Night award in his April debut.
McMillen earned the extra cash at UFC Vegas 115 on April 4, stopping Italy’s Manolo Zecchini by first-round TKO at the UFC Apex. The finish came at 3:57, after McMillen hurt Zecchini with knees and piled on strikes to end the fight. It moved the Great Falls, Montana product to 10-0 as a professional and 1-0 in the UFC.
UFC’s Tommy McMillen Partied for 72 Hours After $100K Bonus Win
A few months later, McMillen gave the post-fight trip its full review. “I didn’t sleep for 3 days, I partied my ass off, it was getting wild,” he said. “I got back home off the plane and promised a bunch of interviews so I just stayed up.”
The timing could not have been much better for a Vegas blowout. UFC bonus awards moved to $100,000 in 2026, doubling the promotion’s prior standard bonus figure. McMillen and Zecchini each received that amount for Fight of the Night, while Alice Pereira and Alessandro Costa took the two Performance of the Night bonuses.
McMillen had called his shot before the fight. He entered his promotional debut as a heavy favorite and predicted a finish worthy of a $100,000 bonus, having said he wanted to get rich through fighting. Then he went out, stopped Zecchini inside four minutes and got the award he had been talking about. Vegas may have been the only logical next opponent.
McMillen’s arrival came after he earned a UFC contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in September 2025, when he beat previously unbeaten David Mgoyan by majority decision. He had finished each of his first eight pro opponents before that bout, then returned to the stoppage column in his UFC debut.
McMillen gets right back to work on Saturday, July 18, when he meets Venezuela’s Alberto “The Promise” Montes in a three-round featherweight fight at UFC Fight Night: Du Plessis vs. Usman at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Montes enters 11-1, with five submission wins, and made a fast impression in his UFC debut by submitting Ricky Turcios with an anaconda choke 40 seconds into the second round at UFC 326 in March. McMillen brings a 10-0 record, a five-inch height edge and a 74-inch reach against Montes’ listed 69-inch reach, setting up a clean striker-versus-grappler question on the main card.
The 28-year-old trains under Tim Welch and alongside former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who was in his corner for the Zecchini fight. McMillen has made no secret of his title ambitions, but his first UFC payday produced a more immediate priority: 72 hours of Vegas nightlife, followed by a flight home and an interview schedule with zero sleep in the tank.
