Following last night’s UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. Neal event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
With no ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus being awarded this time around, four ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses were dished out instead.
Among them was main event winner Stephen Thompson, who looked as sharp as ever at 38-years-of-age as he utilized picture-perfect striking technique and constant movement to comfortably outstrike Geoff Neal for the full 25 minutes.
An accidental clash of heads left both fighters bleeding from cuts to the eyebrow, with Thompson getting the worst of it, while he also sustained a leg injury in the fourth round that left a contusion above his left knee and hindered his movement, but even so he continued to dictate the action, leading to a clean sweep on the judges scorecards.
Rob Font marked his return to action after a torn ACL in style with a big win over Marlon Moraes that also earned him a performance bonus.
Moraes surprised him in the early stages of the opening round by utilizing his ground game, but back on the feet Font was able to rock ‘Magic’ with punches and then sent him sinking to the mat with a big uppercut, followed by hard-hitting ground and pound that had his opponent on the verge of unconsciousness to secure the TKO stoppage.
Marcin Tybura had to contend with being outstruck by Greg Hardy in the opening round of their heavyweight encounter, but he made adjustments in the second and started to get the better of the former NFL player on the feet, before working a takedown and landing a sustained ground and pound assault that left a tired Hardy simply covering up until the referee stopped the fight.
The final bonus of the night was awarded to Jimmy Flick, who lit up the prelims with a spectacular flying triangle submission against Cody Durden in the opening round of their fight.
