Following last night’s UFC 301 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
On this occasion the UFC opted for four ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards, and among them was Michel Pereira, who packed a lot of action into the 54 seconds he took to finish Ihor Potieria on the main card, extending his winning streak to eight fights in the process.
Pereira manged to floor his opponent in the opening minute with a two-punch combo and then showed off his acrobatic ability as he backflipped on top of Potieria. That moment of showmanship almost cost him the fight though when his leg collided with Potieria’s head on the way down, which technically was illegal, though officials chose to overlook it. Then as his opponent tried to battle back to his feet Pereira seized on a guillotine choke that would force him to tap out, though by the time Pereira let go of the choke Potieria was out and crashed to the canvas.
Another main card fighter who pocketed a performance bonus was Caio Borralho, who found Paul Craig’s head to be an easy target to hit in the opening round of their fight, while also having no problem foiling his attempts to get the fight to the mat. His confidence continued to rise in the second round when he hurt Craig with a punch and then briefly sat him down with a knee. Back on the feet Borralho wobbled Craig with an overhand and in a follow-up flurry he connected cleanly with a left hand that slumped his opponent straight down to the canvas for the KO finish.
Mauricio Ruffy made his UFC debut in style as he finished Jamie Mullarkey inside of the opening five minutes in the prelims. Ruffy’s striking looked sharp from the outset and late in the round he had his opponent hurt with punches, then turned up the heat as he landed a flying knee and more punches behind it to put Mullarkey down and secure a TKO finish with just 18 seconds of the round remaining.
Also earning a bonus was Alessandro Costa, who made great use of heavy leg kicks in the second round to leave Kevin Borjas badly compromised, eventually leading to him getting mount and landing ground-and-pound to secure a TKO finish.
