Following UFC Fight Night 288 the recipients of the evening’s $100,000 bonus awards were announced.

‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was handed to the thrilling back-and-forth battle between Tommy McMillen and Marwan Rahiki.

McMillen started as he meant to go on by going on the offensive, and Rahiki soon warmed up to that challenge. While ‘Gun’ was getting the better of the action, Rahiki flipped the script in the 2nd round by dropping him with an uppercut, and while he got right back up, McMillen was still on unsteady legs. He survived though and showed good powers of recovery to continue pushing forward.

McMillen continued to show his fighting spirit in the final five minutes as he continued pushing an aggressive pace, and it wasn’t long before a powerful right hand crashed through to floor Rahiki. While Rahiki was able to fight on he couldn’t match McMillen’s endurance and intensity in the final few minutes and so it’s McMillen who emerged with the unanimous decision victory (29-28 x2, 29-27).

One of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses went to Jean Silva, though that certainly wasn’t for his efforts in the first round against Jose Delgado, as he seemed to have made the decision not to engage early, and paid for it when he was briefly dropped. Silva got to work in the second round though and started to take control of the striking action. Then in the third round he continued to ramp up the pressure and was rewarded when he followed up a right hand with a more powerful one that dropped Delgado, and then quickly seized on a rear-naked choke finish.

Also earning a performance bonus was prelim card fighter Sean King III, who debuted on short-notice against Jessie Rosas and made an immediate impression by knocking out his opponent in just 36 seconds after brutally slamming him to the canvas and then landing a few punches before the ref was able to intervene.