Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 130 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Notably, there was no ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus handed out on this occasion, with the UFC brass opting for four ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards instead.
Darren Stewart earned one of the performance bonuses after first flooring Eric Spicely with a punch and then bombarding him with big ground and pound for the TKO stoppage. This was Stewart’s first ever win in the UFC at the fifth attempt and it left him on his knees overcome by emotion afterwards.
For the best part of three rounds it seemed as if Arnold Allen was heading for a comvincing loss on the scorecards against Mads Burnell, who was comprehensively outgrappling him. However, in the dying minutes of the fight Allen suddenly latched onto a front choke against the cage and went to the mat with it, leaving Burnell with no option but to tap out for a remarkable comeback victory that was well deserving of a performance bonus.
Claudio Silva was a major underdog coming into his fight with Nordine Taleb due to being out of action for nearly four years, but he overcame the odds by producing a rear-naked choke finish late in the first round to claim his ‘Performance Of The Night’ award.
Coming off a two-year layoff, Tom Breese returned in style by connecting with an uppercut that clearly hurt Daniel Kelly, with another punch being enough to crumble him to the mat and earned not only a TKO victory but also a performance bonus too.
