Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 222 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Four ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards were dished out on this occasion and of course one was received by main event winner Sergei Pavlovich, who demolished Curtis Blaydes in the opening round.
Pavlovich’s striking had looked a threat from the start and it spelled trouble for Blaydes when his only takedown attempt was easily stuffed. Then Pavlovich turned up the heat even more and eventually a very well executed uppercut stunned Blaydes, before follow-up punches sunk him to the canvas and paved the way for a 1st round TKO stoppage – his sixth in a row.
Bruno Silva earned his bonus in the co-main event after finding success in his striking battle with Brad Tavares. A right hook counter midway through first round initially seemed to trouble Tavares, and from there Silva poured on the pressure, eventually getting into the clinch and landing a big knee to the head, before flooring him with a straight right. Tavares still seemed to have fight left in him, but the ref decided he’d had enough and stepped in to hand Silva a TKO victory.
Christos Giagos took just 95 seconds to earn his performance bonus after a single left hook knocked out Ricky Glenn, while Montel Jackson punished Rani Yahya for overreaching when he caught him with a clean left hand to secure his own first round KO finish.
