Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 209 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event heavyweight battle between Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa.
Gane’s crisp, calculated striking from range was on full display during the fight, and while that largely kept Tuivasa at bay, a big right hand dramatically floored him in the second round.
However, Gane’s response couldn’t have been better as he got back to his feet and almost immediately had Tuivasa hurt with a powerful body kick, followed up by more kicks and knees to the same area as his opponent winced in pain, only for ‘Shooey’ to then fire back with another big punch to back him up.
Gane was back in control though and was putting more power behind his punches and kicks, which eventually led to the fight-ending sequence late in the third round as he landed a series of hard-hitting punches that sunk Tuivasa to the mat for the KO finish.
Abu Magomedov was one of two fighters to earn a ‘Performance Of The Night’ award after he quickly landed a front kick to the face of Dustin Stoltzfuz and followed up with punches to secure a 19 second TKO victory.
Also claiming a performance bonus was Benoit St. Denis who dropped Bruno Miranda three times on his way to delivering a TKO finish early in the second round.
