Following last night’s UFC 307 event in Salt Lake City the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
‘Fight Of The Night’ honors went to a hard-hitting clash of strikers between light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr.
This proved to be a back-and-forth battle in the early rounds as Rountree looked to give as good as he got as the champion continually stalked him around the Octagon. Pereira’s leg kicks and powerful jabs seemed to be gradually having an effect as time wore on though, bloodying up his opponent, and late in the third round there were signs of Rountree wilting as the intensity picked up and the Brazilian threatened with knees upstairs too. Pereira had the fight by the scruff of the neck in the fourth round as he beat up Rountree with more heavy blows, then sunk him to the canvas with two thumping punches to the body to seal his TKO victory.
Joaquin Buckley earned one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards against Stephen Thompson.
Buckley looked to utilize his wrestling in the early rounds, but Thompson was doing a good job of fending his attempts off and also looked to be the slicker technician on the feet, repeatedly tagging Buckley off the back foot when he pressured forward. Then in the final round Buckley stepped up his tempo and aggression, and that paid off when he was able to back Thompson up to the cage and throw himself forward into a power punch that connected cleanly and sent ‘Wonderboy’ crashing to the canvas for a KO finish.
Also earning a performance bonus was Ryan Spann, who followed up a first round punch against Ovince Saint Preux with a guillotine choke attempt and was able to force the action to the mat on top and get his opponent to tap out seconds later.
