Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 281 event the recipients of the evening’s $100,000 bonus awards were announced.

‘Fight Of The Night’ honors went to the back-and-forth main event battle between Dricus du Plessis and Kamaru Usman, which went the full 25 minutes.

Du Plessis was the bigger, harder-hitting fighter in this match-up, and it showed from early on in the fight as he quickly found his range and began punishing Usman with punches down the pipe. As the fight went on he was also finding success with accurate knees to the head and fast head kicks, leading to Usman being rocked multiple times over the course of five rounds. Usman showed impressive durability for a 39-year-old though and late in the final round was actually the one pushing the pace and trying to find a finish. In the end though it was a dominant win for DDP on the scorecards (50-45, 49-46 x2).

Tommy McMillen could well have taken ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors alongside his opponent Alberto Montes after they went to war on the main card, but instead he settles for a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus after his TKO finish late in the third round.

McMillen relentlessly took the fight to Montes on the feet, maintaining both a high pace and level of output throughout. With his significant height and reach advantage he was able to land big strikes frequently, but Montes proved to have a strong chin and was also able to drop the onrushing ‘Gun’ a couple of times in the early rounds. McMillen just kept coming forward regardless though and was well ahead in terms of significant strikes by the final round, before somehow managing to muster the extra energy reserves needed late on to increase his power and force the ref to step in to save his opponent from further punishment.

Also earning a performance bonus was prelim fighter Felipe Franco, who was able to deliver a 2nd round TKO finish against Levi Rodriguez Jr after managing to mount him and then deliver a barrage of ground-and-pound blows.