Following last night’s UFC 196 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event fireworks between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. In the early stages of the fight McGregor was able to open up a cut close to Diaz’s right eye, but the Stockton native was never phased by it and continued to stick to his rangey boxing style which paid off in the second round when he rocked McGregor with two hard punches to the jaw. McGregor never quite recovered as Diaz continued to land strikes and then capitalized on a sloppy takedown attempt to take his back and tap him out by rear-naked choke.
Nate Diaz’s jaw-dropping upset submission victory also earned him a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus too, ensuring that he walks away with a total of $100,000 in bonus money from the event.
Finally, earning the other ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus was the other huge upset winner on the card, Miesha Tate who became the new woman’s bantamweight champion after a late rear-naked choke finish against Holly Holm. Tate had taken Holm down in the second round and dominated here there, but wasn’t able to find a finish and found her tougher to get down to the mat after that. She persevered though and late in the final round she finally did land the takedown she wanted, then showed her determination to get the finish as she clung on to a rear-naked choke despite Holm’s best efforts to shake her off, and eventually choked her unconscious.
