Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 15 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was an extremely close and competitive main event battle between Frankie Edgar and Pedro Munhoz.
At 38-years-old and making his first appearance at bantamweight, Edgar looked like he still had plenty to offer with his fast flurries, takedown attempts and excellent cardio, while Munhoz had more pop in his punches, applied plenty of pressure and never wilted despite the fast pace of the fight.
In the end it was a shame there could only be one winner and it was Edgar who emerged with his hand raised via split decision (48-47 x2, 46-49).
Meanwhile, Shana Dobson earned a well-deserved ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus after the massive underdog secured a second round TKO victory over Mariya Agapova.
Agapova set a ferocious pace from the opening bell, but she was being somewhat reckless and overexerting herself, while Dobson stayed calm, found herself able to take down her younger opponent with relative ease, and in the second round firmly gained control of the bout and was able to finish her with ground and pound from the back, though some of the fight-ending blows appeared to illegally land to the back of the head.
Also securing a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus was Trevin Jones, who was taking a beating from Timur Valiev early in their fight, but Jones, who had taken the fight on extremely short notice, was able to rally and land a big counter in the second round that set up a ground and pound finish.
The good news for some of the other fighters on what’s proved to be an action-packed evening is that Dana White stated at the post-fight press conference that, “I’m going to be writing a lot of checks,” to reward everyone for their efforts.
