Following last night’s UFC 305 event in Australia the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight of The Night’ honors was a hard fought main card battle between Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot that went the distance.
Gamrot’s wrestling advantage had been expected to be a big factor in the fight, and to an extent it was, but Hooker did well to foil some of his takedowns and was able to work his way back to his feet. And key to Hooker’s eventual success was that every time he got back up he immediately took the fight to his opponent, putting him on the back foot with aggressive offense.
That led him to some big moments, but he didn’t have it all his own way on the feetthough as Gamrot actually dropped him with a punch in the opening round, and by the end Hooker face was cut and swollen. However, Hooker’s gutsy display full of grit and determination still proved enough to earn him the nod from two of the three judges, leading to a split-decision victory (29-28 x2, 28-29).
Kai Kara-France has spent the last year out after suffering a bad concussion in training, but he got right back to business last night as he took the fight to recent flyweight title challenger Steve Erceg in the opening round and was rewarded when he connected with a powerful left hand that floored him. Erceg got back up but looked unsteady and was soon put back down again with another big punch to seal the TKO victory and win a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus in the process.
Also earning a performance award was Carlos Prates, who looked very assured in the striking department as he used his long limbs to pick apart Li Jingliang. Prates left hand in particular caused his opponent all sorts of trouble, buckling his legs multiple times during the fight. Jingliang had never been finished via strikes before and so he hung in there longer than others would have been able to, but a few more lefts in the 2nd round finally proved to much, leading Prates to a KO victory.
