Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 117 event in Japan the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a bloody battle between top women’s strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Claudia Gadelha.
In the opening round it was Gadelha who was surprisingly taking the fight to Andrade on the feet with some success, as well as starting to implement her grappling skills.
However, it wasn’t long before Andrade seized the fight by the scruff of the neck and began blitzing Gadelha with hard-hitting combinations, while also proving to be the stronger fighter in the clinch and landing some impressively powerful takedowns.
as the fight wore on both fighters were bleeding from cuts to the face, but Gadelha had the worst of it and was visibly wilting, while Andrade seemed to have endless energy reserves and rightfully emerged with a unanimous decision victory.
Main event star Ovince Saint Preux earned a ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus after he again managed to produce a finish via one of the tougher submissions to successfully complete, the Von Flue Choke, rendering veteran campaigner Yushin Okami unconscious in less than two minutes.
Kickboxing ace Gokhan Saki also impressed in his debut with some vicious, clinical striking against Henrique da Silva, though a two-year layoff from competition caught up with him late in the first round after what had been a one-sided beatdown up to that point.
Suddenly Da Silva started to come on strong with rapid-fire combos against the tiring Saki, but ‘The Turkish Tyson’ then returned fire with a right hand followed by a left hook that floored his opponent for the KO finish.
