Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 51 event the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
On this occasion four ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonuses were handed out and Khalil Rountree took home one of them after he delivered a 1st round TKO finish against Chris Daukaus.
Daukaus had dropped down from heavyweight for this encounter, but soon regretted it as every time he looked to engage he was getting caught by Rountree’s hard right hand counters. It was one of those that would go on to daze Daukaus mid-way through the round, with Rountree then followed up with a perfect straight left down the pipe that floored him, followed by a few more strikes on the mat to secure the finish at the 2.40min mark.
The 21-year-old Iasmin Lucindo also claimed a bonus after finding a finish on the mat against Polyana Viana in the2nd round.
Lucindo had seemed to wobble Viana early in that round with a counter punch, but didn’t follow up on it. Soon after she was able to secure a takedown, but the action stalled and it looked like they were on the verge of being stood back up when Lucindo started working for an arm-triangle choke and then passed guard to lock it in tightly and force the tapout.
In the prelims Da’Mon Blackshear made a big impression by managing to pull off only the 3rd Twister submission in UFC history after bringing Jose Johnson down, taking his back and setting up the rare move to force a tapout at the 3.47min mark of the opening round.
Also earning a performance bonus was Marcus McGhee who crumpled JP Buys with a hard right hand mid-way through the opening round to earn a walk-off KO finish.
