Following last night’s UFC On ESPN 52 event in Texas the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced, and after a night of big finishes Dana White went all-in on bonus awards, handing out no less than 10 instead of the usual 4!
First up was the ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus, which was handed to a back-and-forth prelim card scrap between Rodolfo Bellato and Ihor Poteiria.
Poteiria had started the second round strongly by dropping Bellato, but despite following him to the mat he couldn’t find a finish. Bellato would then get back to his feet and turn the tables by turning up the heat and getting his opponent down, before finding his way to mount and delivering a TKO finish via ground-and-pound.
Meanwhile a long list of ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus winners included main event winner Arman Tsarukyan, who almost certainly booked his spot in the lightweight top 5 rankings after he KO’d Beneil Dariush in just 64 seconds. Tsarukyan had initially attacked with a knee to the head, and though that didn’t quite make the clean contact he was hoping for, while still balanced on one leg he threw a follow-up right hand that landed flush and floored his opponent, with a couple of big punches on the mat sealing the deal.
Jalin Turner also earned a performance bonus for his nasty knockout of Bobby Green mid-way through the first round in the co-main event. This one was hard to watch though due to terrible refereeing from Kerry Hatley, who watched Turner put Green on wobbly legs with a punch, before sending him face-down on the canvas with another heavy blow. By then the fight should already have been over, but Hatley didn’t intervene as Turner got on top and repeatedly blasted the barely conscious Green with huge punches until he was finally knocked out cold.
Sean Brady also claimed a bonus after an impressive performance against Kelvin Gastelum, completely dominating the veteran in his return to welterweight with his high-level wrestling and grappling, before putting the icing on the cake in the final round by locking in a fight-ending kimura submission.
Miesha Tate looked much more like her old self last night and was rewarded with a bonus after getting back to her wrestling roots against Julia Avila. From the opening bell Tate was hell-bent on getting the fight to the mat and quickly did so, where she was able to dominate the action for long periods, before working her way to a rear-naked choke finish in the final round.
There was also a stunning bit of history earlier in the night when both Drakkar Klose and Cody Brundage knocked out their respective opponents Joe Selecki and Zachary Reese by way of slamming them to the canvas in back-to-back preliminary card fights.
And rounding out the bonus winners was Jared Gooden, who became the first fighter to finish Wellington Turman by submission when he locked in a 2nd round rear-naked choke.
