UFC Fight Night 256 Bonus Awards

Following last night’s UFC Fight night 256 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.

‘Fight Of The Night’ honors went to Melquizael Costa vs. Julian Erosa who left it all in the cage with a back-and-forth battle that somehow went the distance on the main card.

Costa started strongly and was soon making an impact with his striking, leading to him wobbling Erosa with a head kick. That could easily have been the beginning of the end for Erosa, but he survived and by the mid-way point in the fight he was starting to really come into the fight. That led to a barnburner of a third round as Erosa tried to make up for lost time with aggressive forward pressure, and Costa responded in kind, leading to some intense action. In the end though with neither able to land the killer blow they were looking for it went to the scorecards, where Costa emerged with a unanimous decision victory (30-27 x2, 29-28).

Main event winner Michael Morales earned one of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses after he impressed by finishing Gilbert Burns in the opening round.

The undefeated Morales looked very composed on the feet in his biggest fight to date and was soon using his size advantage to land punches from range. After quickly righting himself when Burns landed a takedown, Morales then really started to unleash power punches and suddenly the veteran wilted and sunk to the canvas. The fight was on the verge of being stopped as Morales rained down strikes, but Burns battled back to his feet, only to be put down again soon afterwards under a further barrage of blows, leading to a first round TKO finish.

Also earning a performance bonus was Denise Gomes, who floored Elise Reed with a big overhand right early in the second round. Reed tried to get back to her feet under heavy fire, but was put straight back down again. The fight should have been over at that point, but the ref didn’t intervene immediately so Gomes landed more ground-and-pound to seal the TKO finish.