Following last night’s UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Vieira event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was a hard fought co-main event battle between Michel Pereira and Santiago Ponzinibbio.
Ponzinibbio tried to push the pace early in the fight, but it was Pereira who was landing the more meaningful blows and appeared to be gaining the upper-hand. However, in the second half of the fight it was Ponzinibbio who upped his intensity and started to find a home for more of his strikes and had particular success in the final five minutes.
In the end the fight went to a split-decision ruling with Pereira having been deemed to have done enough to emerge with the victory (28-29, 30-27, 29-28).
One of two ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses on the night was handed to Chidi Njokuani, who for the second fight in the row was able to deliver a first-round KO finish, this time with a brutal elbow strike from the clinch that took out Dusko Todorovic.
Also earned a performance award was 22-year-old Chase Hooper, who dominated his preliminary card fight with Felipe Colares with his grappling ability, but then was able to find a TKO finish in the final round after achieving full mount and dropping down elbow strikes until the referee stepped in.
