Following last night’s UFC 231 the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the stunning main event featherweight title clash between Max Holloway and Brian Ortega.
Truth be told Holloway was always in the driving seat in this clash with his footwork, timing, sense of distance and pinpoint accuracy all being on display as he repeatedly picked apart Ortega with combinations throughout the fight, while also doing an excellent job of stuffing the dangerous grapplers attempts to bring the fight to the mat.
As such Holloway also earned one of the two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards too, but it’s fitting that Ortega also shared in the Fight Of The Night bonus spotlight too for his remarkable display of toughness that saw him hang in there until the end of the fourth round when the bout was waved off due to a doctor deeming him unfit to continue, while to his credit he actually did also land some hard, clean shots over the course of the contest too, which made it an even more thrilling spectacle.
Meanwhile, Thiago Santos secured the second ‘Performance Of The Night’ award after another incredible war in the main card opener against Jimi Manuwa.
The first round was proclaimed by many to be a candidate for ‘Round Of The Year’ as Santos rocked Manuwa multiple times with big strikes, but the UK fighter showed his natural fighting instincts by continually fighting back and he had the Brazilian in trouble at times too.
However, Santos still largely had the momentum on his side and in the second round he continued to go all out for a finish and slayed Manuwa early in the second round with punches that left him face down on the canvas for a spectacular KO finish.
