Following last night’s UFC Fight Night: Aspinall vs. Tybura event in London the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a preliminary card battle between Jonny Parsons and Danny Roberts.
This was a slug-fest from start to finish and Parsons was largely getting the better of it as he rocked Roberts several times during the fight. Roberts showed real heart to survive as long as he did, but in the end late in the 2nd round he reached his breaking point as Parsons landed a knee and then follow-up strikes that dropped him for a TKO finish.
Main event winner Tom Aspinall was an obvious candidate for a ‘Performance Of The Night’ award after he made short work of Marcin Tybura after a year-long layoff due to a serious knee injury.
Despite having undergone surgery on his knee since then it quickly became apparent that the heavyweight’s speed hadn’t been compromised as he appeared very light on his feet in the early action against Tybura. And that helped him set up the fight-ending sequence soon afterwards as he swiftly stepped into a big elbow strike that dazed Tybura, before a left hook was followed up by a straight right that floored him to secure a TKO stoppage just 73 seconds into the fight.
Also earning a performance bonus was Paul Craig who arguably had his best performance to date after dropping down to middleweight to take on fellow grappler Andre Muniz on the main card>
Craig was competitive with Muniz on the feet and on the mat during the fight, showing improved takedowns and good submission defense along the way, before some slick scrambling on the mat in the second round led him to full mount, where he delivered a brutal barrage of elbow strikes to claim a TKO victory.
