UFC On ESPN 40 Post-Fight Bonus Awards

Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 40 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.

Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event battle between Jamahal Hill and Thiago Santos.

The striking exchanges were intense in this one, while Santos was also mixing in takedowns into his strategy as he looked to gain the upper-hand over his in-form opponent. However, in the fourth round Hill seemed to commit to stepping up a gear with his strikes and it paid off as he hurt Santos and then sent him reeling backwards onto the mat with a punch, with heavy ground and pound elbows then leading to a TKO finish.

Meanwhile, Geoff Neal took home one of three ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards after he lived up to his ‘Handz Of Steel’ moniker by repeatedly rocking Vicente Luque with his piston-like left hand over the course of their fight. After a torrid first round, Luque seemed to be gaining ground in the second with his own striking, but in the third Neal again left him on wobbled legs with a big left hand connection and then landed a series of rapid-fire uppercuts up against the cage with another left hand then putting him down for an impressive KO victory.

Mohammed Usman didn’t do a whole lot in the opening round of his TUF heavyweight final against Zac Pauga, but it turned out he didn’t need to as early in the second round he landed a single left hook counter that floored his opponent, with nasty follow-up strikes on the mat confirming the knockout victory.

Also securing a performance bonus was Brian Battle, who only needed 44 seconds to deliver a head kick knockout finish against Takashi Sato in the prelims.

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.