Following last night’s UFC 230 event in New York City the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were annnounced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was an exciting main event battle between Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Chris Weidman.
Both fighters left everything in the Octagon here, trading hard strikes from the opening bell, and for a time it was the former champion Weidman who seemed to be getting the better of it.
However, ‘Jacare’ was never put off by that and in the third round he began marching down Weidman and landing hard shots, which would eventually lead to him landing a punch to the forehead that sent him slamming to the canvas, with a few follow-up punches on the mat then sealing a big TKO victory for the Brazilian.
Meanwhile, Israel Adesanya absolutely earned his ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus with a stand-out display against Derek Brunson.
Adesanya had to show off his takedown defense early in the fight as Brunson repeatedly tried to get him to the mat, but then late in the round he started to turn the screw, with a well timed knee to the head being the catalyst for a series of clinical shots to start landing that would put his opponent on his back several times before a final punch floored him yet again and convinced the referee to wave off the fight.
In his middleweight debut, Jared Cannonier also earned a performance bonus after he stepped in on short notice to fight David Branch and showed his poweer by TKO’ing him early in the second round.
