Following yesterday’s UFC Fight Night 226 event in Paris the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight of The Night’ honors was a main card scrap between Benoit Saint Denis and Thiago Moises.
Saint Denis showed off his well-rounded skills and cardio in this fight as he got the better of Moises on the feet and on the mat. In the opening round Denis was more active and accurate with his strikes, which forced his opponent to back up under-fire several times, though Moises would then generally steel himself to throw heavy leather back at him. However, when Saint Denis got on top later in the round he was also able to open up a nasty cut to the eyebrow with an elbow strike.
In the second round Saint Denis started to sap Moises energy reserves as he repeatedly dragged him to the mat, and when his opponent started to turtle up he unleashed repeated right hands to the head that took their toll, leading to a TKO stoppage late in the round.
One of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards was handed to main event winner Ciryl Gane, who made it look easy against Sergey Spivak.
Gane’s athletic superiority was clear from the start as he was much lighter on the feet and was able to dance around the lumbering Spivak while peppering him with punches and low kicks. Crucially Gane was equally fleet of foot when he’d Spivak’s telegraphed takedown attempts, ensuring that he was already out of the way by the time he got there.
In the second round Gane gradually started to turn up the power in his strikes and landed some good kicks and knees to the body along with heavier punches. Spivak soon began to wilt and as he covered up against the cage a barrage of blows from Gane would lead to a TKO stoppage.
Also earning a performance bonus was Morgan Charriere, who opened up the main card in style against Manolo Zecchini, with multiple accurate kicks to the body in the first round crumpling his opponent to the canvas for a knockout finish.
