Following last night’s UFC 216 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a wild and bloody war in the prelims between Lando Vannata and Bobby Green.
Vannata had Green in big trouble in the first round, but also landed an illegal knee that would lead to him being deducted a point – which would prove to be costly for him in the end.
Green recovered and would go on to slug it out with Vannata for the remainder of the 15 minute fight, with neither man showing any signs of considering retreat, and with the point deduction factored in that led to the fight being declared a majority draw.
Meanwhile, despite being a big underdog on the night, John Moraga emerged with a ‘Performance Of The Night’ award after he knocked out the previously undefeated Magomed Bibulatov early in the first round with an overhand right followed by a left hook.
Also claiming a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus was flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, who broke the record for the most consecutive title defenses in UFC history with another virtuoso performance against Ray Borg.
Borg never made it easy for Johnson, but that only served to show how good Johnson is as he was still never in danger and always seemed to have an answer for anything the challenger attempted to do.
Johnson’s brilliance was showcased for all to see in the last two minutes of the final round when he suddenly let out a gutteral roar, threw Borg into the air suplex-style, then somehow simultaneously managed to grab his arm while he was still in mid-air, enabling him to land in the perfect position to produce an armbar finish.
