Following last night’s UFC On ESPN+ 3 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
On this occasion there was no ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus, so four performance awards were dished out instead.
Among the performance bonus winners was main event star Thiago Santos, who was less aggressive than usual in his fight with Jan Blachowicz, and that paid off in the third round when the Polish fighter came charging forward and was caught clean by a counter left hook that floored him, followed up with relentless ground and pound for the TKO finish.
Stefan Struve also scooped up a bonus after surviving being floored with Marcos Rogerio de Lima’s first punch of the fight and then tapping him out with an arm triangle choke in the second, before announcing his retirement from the sport afterwards.
Michal Oleksiejczuk was awarded a performance bonus after winning a battle of the brawlers in which he KO’d Gian Villante with a perfectly placed liver shot.
Meanwhile, Dwight Grant earned his bonus after stunning last second knockout in the first round of his fight with Carlo Pedersoli Jr after catching him with a right hook that sent his opponent’s mouthpiece flying and left him unable to defend himself against the ground and pound that followed.
