Following last night’s UFC 315 event in Montreal the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
‘Fight Of The Night’ honors were handed to Jack Della Maddalena and Belal Muhammad, who battled back and forth for the full five rounds in the main event.
The title challenger Maddalena looked assured on the feet from the start and got the better of the striking action in the early rounds, while also doing a solid job of shutting down Muhammad’s surprisingly few early takedown attempts. It was really only in the championship rounds that Muhammad fully got into his stride, upping his volume and pressure on the feet, while finally finding occasional success with his wrestling. However, JDM was able to match his intensity and showed an impressive gas tank in a hard-fought final round in which he had Muhammad hurt with punches and also a big knee upstairs that opened up a cut, before surviving a ground-and-pound assault that left him with a swollen eye. The action continued fast and furious until the final bell, before Maddalena was rightly declared the winner and new welterweight champion by unanimous decision (48-47 x2, 49-46).
Marc Andre Barriault picked up one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards after he fought his way out of a three-fight losing slump in devastating fashion against Bruno Silva in the prelims.
The fight lasted just 64 seconds until Barriault delivered a brutal knockout blow with an elbow strike that sent his opponent face-planting to the canvas. Unfortunately the 35-year-old Silva had to be stretchered out of the Octagon after what was his fifth loss in a row, but he has since posted an update to say that he is ok.
Also earning a performance bonus was Jasmine Jasudavicius, who secured a first round rear-naked choke victory over Jessica Andrade.
