Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 22 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event striking battle between Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum, which stayed competitive for the full five rounds.
Well, we say competitive, but really Whittaker had the fight by the scruff of the neck from early on as he offered up a clinical display of high-level striking that Gastelum simply couldn’t match.
That being said, Gastelum showed his toughness, even surviving an early thunderous head kick connection, and never tired in his pursuit of pressing forward trying to change the momentum of the bout, but was unable to consistently find a home for his strikes and Whittaker would emerge a decisive winner on the scorecards.
Earlier in the night, Gerald Meerschart got back to winning ways and picked up a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus in the process as he made short work of Bartosz Fabinkski, taking him to the mat and securing a tight guillotine choke to send him to sleep at 2.00mins of the first round.
Also earning a performance bonus was Tony Gravely, who got the better of Anthony Birchak on the feet and the mat in the first round, but after just missing out on a finish in the opening round he made sure to seal the deal in the second, dropping his opponent with a left hook and then following up with hammerfists to get the TKO stoppage.
