Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 73 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.

‘Fight Of The Night’ honors in the final event of the year went to a preliminary card fight between Steven Asplund and Sean Sharaf.

Asplund gained the upper-hand in the striking department during the opening round and managed to open up a cut too. And while Sharaf showed his toughness and tried to fight back in the second round, Asplund simply overwhelmed him as he ramped up his volume. He eventually hurt his opponent with a right hand, before swarming him with unrelenting strikes until the referee stepped in to save the still-standing Sharaf from further punishment for a TKO finish at 3.49mins of the second round. By that time Asplund had landed 170 significant strikes, a new UFC record for a three-round heavyweight bout.

Meanwhile, main event winner Manel Kape took home one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards after he KO’d former flyweight title contender Brandon Royval mid-way through the first round.

Kape had managed to back Royval up against the cage before exploding into a right hook that crumpled him to the canvas, and then sealed the deal with follow-up punches that delivered the flash KO.

Also earning a performance bonus was Kevin Vallejos, who impressed in the co-main event by becoming the first fighter to KO Giga Chikadze in his MMA career.

Chikadze had suffered a nasty gash to his shin in the opening round after checking a leg kick, but it didn’t seem to be deterring him from throwing it. It didn’t matter in the end though as Vallejos was able to back him up with a couple of right hands early in the second round and then caught him by surprise with a spinning backfist to floor him, before knocking him out with heavy elbows on the mat.