Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 182 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a thoroughly entertaining and highly skilled main card battle between Raoni Barcelos and Khalid Tala.
The striking exchanges between the two were a pleasure to watch, with Barcelos varied and accurate arsenal of strikes clearly getting the better of the action throughout, but Tala nonetheless proving to be a willing dance partner who at times gave as good as he got, leading to many tit-for-tat skirmishes.
However, in addition to his striking prowess, Barcelos also demonstrated a good ground game too and that further helped him build a case for a clean sweep on the scorecards (30-27 x3).
Meanwhile, Giga Chikadze earned one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards for his first round dismantling of Jamey Simmons in a bout that was promoted to the main card on short notice.
Chikadze’s potent striking was on full display early in the fight and led to him softening up Simmons with a body kick, before going upstairs with a head kick that sat him down, followed by a flurry of ground and pound strikes to seal the TKO stoppage.
Also earning a performance bonus was Alexandr Romanov who made a little bit of history when he stopped Marcos Rogerio de Lima with a forearm submission – the first time that move had been successfully completed in UFC history.
