UFC 314 Bonus Awards

Following last night’s UFC 314 event in Miami the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.

The vacant featherweight title was up for grabs when Alexander Volkanovski fought Diego Lopes in the main event, and they also earned ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors to for their efforts over the course of five rounds.

Despite coming off back-to-back KO losses and a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Volkanovsi looked like his old self early on as he quickly got into his striking rhythm, aided by the fact that Lopes was surprisingly cautious in his approach. However, late in the second round things heated up when Lopes floored the former champ with a right hand. That didn’t result in a complete shift in momentum though, but Lopes did come into the fight more and had another big spell in the fourth round when he again had Volkanovski hurt. That led to a nail-biting finale, but Volkanovski more consistent output and accuracy over five rounds would eventually lead him to a unanimous decision victory (48-47, 49-46 x2) to win back the 145lb title.

Co-main event winner Paddy Pimblett earned one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards after he put on his best performance to date against Michael Chandler.

Pimblett dominated the fight, using his size and reach advantage together with improved striking to keep Chandler on the end of his strikes, while also largely getting the better of him on the mat too. Then in the third round a well-timed knee from Pimblett hurt Chandler and left him with a cut on his cheek. Pimblett was then able to get the fight to the mat and unleash a ruthless barrage of ground-and-pound to his increasingly bloodied opponent’s head until the referee stepped in to end the action, handing Pimblett a TKO victory, while extending his UFC winning streak to seven fights.

Also earning a performance bonus was Jean Silva, who continued to look like a future 145lb title challenger with a complete performance against Bryce Mitchell.

As always Silva was slick on the feet, but he was also doing a good job of preventing Mitchell’s attempts to take him down. Silva dropped Mitchell with a right hand early in the second round, which only increased Mitchell’s urgency to take him down, but without success. Instead it was Silva who eventually opted to take the fight to the mat after seizing on a ninja-choke submission, and it was in tight, forcing Mitchell to tap out, but still go to sleep just as the ref stepped in.