Following last night’s UFC 276 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a back-and-forth stand-up battle between Bryan Barberena and Robbie Lawler on the main card.
Lawler showed a willingness to get into the pocket with Barberena early and often in the fight, and he was landing the harder punches and using his defensive shell to deflect some of the offense coming back his way, but his opponent’s high-volume approach ensured that some blows were still getting through.
There was more of the same in the second round, but then Barberena dazed Lawler with a step-in elbow and big punch, with ‘Ruthless’ never getting time to recover as a continual barrage of blows continued to rock him until the referee mercifully waded in to end the fight by TKO.
Three ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses were also dished out, rather than the usual two, and one of those claiming the award was Alex Pereira, who may well have put himself in pole position for a middleweight title showdown with his ex-kickboxing rival Israel Adesanya after KO’ing Sean Strickland in the opening round with two thunderous punches.
Jalin Turner rightly scooped up a bonus after he submitted Brad Riddell in just 45 seconds, initially rocking him with a right hand on the feet, before capitalizing on his opponent’s instinctive takedown attempt, seizing on a guillotine choke and going to the mat with it to produce the tap-out finish.
Julija Stoliarenko also earned an extra $50,000 for her earned an even quicker submission stoppage win, taking only 42 seconds to find an armbar finish against Jessica-Rose Clark.
