Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 177 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the excellent main card scrap between Michelle Waterson and Angela Hill, which proved to be a high-paced, hard fought battle from start to finish.
In the early rounds Hill’s straight punches seemed to be paying dividends versus Waterson’s kick-based attacks, but by the third round ‘The Karate Hottie’ was starting to make adjustments and edged out the striking battle, meaning that in the final five minutes it was anybody’s fight.
As with the previous four rounds, it continued to be so closely contested that it was hard to pick a clear winner, and that was reflected in the split decision verdict, which went in favor of Waterson (47-48, 49-46, 48-47).
Co-main event winner Ottman Azaitar earned one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses after he made short work of Khama Worthy, landing a big two-piece combo early in the opening round and then unleashing a series of left and right hands that sent his opponent to his knees, before ground and pound blows sealed the TKO stoppage only 93 seconds into the fight.
Also scooping up a performance bonus was Kevin Croom, who came in on short notice to fight Roosevelt Roberts and the fight had barely got going when he shocked him with a left hand and then went for a standing guillotine choke that would force a tapout only 31 seconds into the fight.
