UFC Fight Night 249 Bonus Awards

Following last night’s UFC Fight Night 249 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.

Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a main card middleweight battle between Roman Kopylov and Chris Curtis.

This was a hard-fought, back-and-forth stand-up scrap that saw both men having the upper-hand at times. Kopylov started well, but Curtis gradually started to apply consistent pressure behind a hard-hitting jab and got the better of round two. Kopylov seemed to find his second-wind in the final five minutes and even managed a takedown at one point, but it was still competitive heading into the final moments of the bout when Kopylov suddenly unleashed a head kick that rocked Curtis and sent him staggering to the canvas, with the ref then waving off the fight with just 1 second left on the clock for a stunning TKO finish.

Mackenzie Dern started the year off by avenging a previous loss to Amanda Ribas in the main event, showing off her world-class jiu-jitsu off her back in the third round to threaten with an armbar and then sweep on top, before again going for the submission finish and this time forcing a swift tapout.

On the first card of the year Cesar Almeida served up what’s already sure to be one of the knockouts of the year after he endured being dropped in the first round of his fight with Abdul Razak Alhassan, only to then rise back up and in the midst of a barrage of blows coming his way manage to unleash a powerful left hook that sent his opponent toppling to the canvas unconscious.