Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 28 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Despite a card ravaged by late call-offs, there was still plenty of entertaining action to be had in the Octagon last night, and the cream of the crop was the main card opener between Jason Witt and Bryan Barberena, which secured ‘Fight of The Night’ honors.
Witt had more success on the feet than might have been expected, hurting Barberena at times and even putting him down, but it was his mat work that also helped him control significant portions of the first two rounds.
That being said, Barberena was also having success with his striking when they were upright and had Witt rocked and floored several times, especially during a frenetic final round as he tried to secure a late finish, but ultimately couldn’t put him away, leading to Witt emerging with a majority decision victory (28-28, 29-27, 29-28).
Cheyanne Buys picked up one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses as she earned her first victory swiftly and in some style, taking the fight to Gloria de Paula from the opening bell with strikes and then a takedown.
De Paula kicked her off and looked to get back to her feet, but as she was doing so Buys stepped in and landed a big head kick, then after initially thinking the fight was over, she rushed over to puts de Paula back down and sealed a TKO victory with follow-up strikes.
Also earning a performance bonus was newcomer Melsik Baghdasaryan, who unleashed, fast, powerful and technical strikes at Collin Anglin from the opening bell and never really left him off the hook from their on.
By the second round there were questions about whether Baghdasaryan could keep that firepower going, and he demonstrated that he absolutely could by landing a clean head kick that sent Anglin reeling to his left-hand side onto the mat, with a punch while he was grounded also landing before the TKO stoppage.
