Following last night’s UFC 324 event the recipients of the newly increased $100,000 bonus awards were announced.

‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was an easy pick on this occasion, with the headliner between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett bringing the thrills and spills that were largely missing from several of the other fights on the main card.

This was very much an old-school Gaethje performance as he was constantly marching forward and willing to absorb blows to land his own hard-hitting punches. And Pimblett was willing to meet him on those terms and was able to land his fair share of strikes over the course of the fight, but it was Gaethje’s offense that took the bigger toll, putting ‘The Baddy’ down several times while leaving his face increasingly bloodied and swollen. Pimblett’s chin, cardio and heart held out when most others would have crumbled, but in hindsight perhaps he’ll regret not making more effort to try to get Gaethje down and utilize his grappling advantage. Instead he battled on right to the final bell, where Gaethje was announced the winner by unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46 x2) to become the interim lightweight champion.

The two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses went to preliminary card fighters, who will no doubt be thrilled to receive their $100,000 bonuses.

First up was Ty Miller, who was part of the first fight of the Paramount+ era and also went on to deliver it’s first finish after hurting Adam Fugitt late on in the first round with right hands and a big knee upstairs on his way to a TKO stoppage just 1 second before the bell.

Also earning a performance bonus was Josh Hokit, although his last second TKO finish of Denzel Freeman in the opening round was a bit odd. Hokit had already worn down Freeman earlier in the round and then with a barrage of strikes forced him to bid a hasty retreat. As he did so Hokit threw a high kick that came off Freeman’s shoulder, resulting in him going down to one knee just as the round was about to end. The referee took that as a signal that he’d had enough and waved off the fight.