Following last night’s thrilling UFC 202 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
‘Fight Of The Night’ had to go to Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz’s incredible five round war, which will surely now be the frontrunner to take ‘Fight Of The Year’ honors as well.
The second scrap between the two lived up to, an indeed in many respects exceeded, expectations with a fight that ebbed and flowed from start to finish.
McGregor dropped Diaz no less than three times in the first two rounds of the fight, but the blood-soaked Diaz started to come on strong late in the second and then in the third as ‘The Notorious’ appeared to begin running out of steam.
However, McGregor found his second wind in the fourth round and was landing the superior offense, while Diaz began to embrace an increasingly clinch-heavy approach that won him the final round, landing his one and only takedown in the final seconds of the fight.
It was an extremely close fight, but in the end it was McGregor who emerged victorious by majority decision (48-47 x2, 47-47) to even the score with his rival and likely set up another money-spinning trilogy fight between them.
The first ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus was handed to Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, who once again demonstrated his staggering punching power by knocking out Glover Teixeira with an uppercut just 13 seconds into their fight, which should earn him a title rematch with Daniel Cormier next.
The other ‘Performance Of The Night’ award went to Donald Cerrone, who again shone in his new 170lb weight class as he picked Rick Story apart on the feet, finishing him off with a terrific combination of punches, head kick and a knee upstairs to seal a TKO victory.
