Following last night’s UFC 284 event in Australia the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
The eagerly anticipated clash of champions in the main event delivered as Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski battled it out for the full 25 minutes and earned ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors for their efforts.
The fight was particularly interesting for the fact that both fighters did better in areas that are typically considered to be their opponents strong suits. For Makhachev that meant being the more effective striker, using his sharp counter-striking to land the cleaner, more consistent work over the course of the fight, dazing his opponent at times, though Volkanovski also had some big moments too.
Meanwhile, despite being significantly smaller, Volkanovski did a very good job of preventing Makhachev from being as dominant in the wrestling department as we’ve seen in the past and shut down his submission attempts too. In the final the featherweight kingpin even tried his hand at bringing the lightweight champ to the mat, and in the end landed a punch to put him down and secured top control to land ground-and-pound.
Overall though between his striking and the times he did find success with his wrestling it was Makhachev who emerged victorious via unanimous decision (48-47 x2, 49-46), but Volkanovski’s stock also raised thanks to his performance on the night.
One of the two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses was handed to co-main event winner Yair Rodriguez, who showed off the full range of his dynamic striking ability against Josh Emmett on his way to winning the interim featherweight title.
However, Rodriguez showed there’s more strings to his bow than that when Emmett took him down in the second round, only to then find himself caught in a fight-ending triangle choke submission.
Another impressive fighter on the night was the in-form Jack Della Maddalena, who notched up his fourth 1st round victory in a row after he backed up Randy Brown with a one-two in the opening round and then landed clean with a big right hook as he tried to step off the side, sending him crashing head-first onto the canvas, before then finishing his still-dazed opponent off with a rear-naked choke.
