Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 2 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
It might have only lasted half a round, but the main event fireworks between Justin Gaethje and Edson Barboza earned them ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors last night.
The two lightweight stars started out by blasting each other with huge leg kicks, but then Gaethje hurt Barboza with a punch and continued to attack.
Barboza did his best to fight back, but then as he was retreating Gaethje caught him flush with a big right hook that knocked him out cold in spectacular highlight reel fashion.
Meanwhile, Jack Hermansson earned a ‘Performance Of The Night’ award after he came with all guns blazing at David Branch from the opening bell in the co-main event, following up strikes with a slick trip takedown and then locking up a guillotine choke finish just 49 seconds into the fight.
Also earning a performance bonus was Paul Craig, who looked for takedowns and pulled guard at times against Kennedy Nzechukwu in order to get his submission game going, but wasn’t quite able to lock up a finish.
In the end that meant he had to stand and trade with his dangerous rival, and he actually did a respectable job of that before finally getting his opponent down and locking up that triangle choke submission he’d tried for several times in the final minute of the fight.
