UFC President Dana White apparently felt especially generous after an impressive night of mixed martial arts action at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, Wednesday night as he awarded five fighters instead of the usual four, fight bonuses totalling $200,000 for their remarkable performances at UFC Fight Night 22.
Submission(s) of the Night
White must have thought that two is better than one when he picked two recipients for the Submission of the Night bonus in light of their spectacular skills.
First Cole Miller made a point of showing that time is money when he swiflty submitted Ross Pearson with a rear-naked choke at 1:49 in round one after rocking him with a powerful left hook which earned him $40,000 extra on top of his fight purse. Not a bad paycheck for fighting on a UFC undercard.
Already earning a pretty decent paycheck from the UFC for being featured on the main card, Charles Oliveira found a way to make some extra cash while adding another win to his spotless record of 14-0 with the submission of the equally experienced Efrain Escudero.
Naturally, Escudero did not hand him the win on a silver platter which made the victory so much sweeter for Oliveira. After almost three rounds of back-and-forth battle Oliveira seized the moment, jumped on Escudero's back and locked him into a standing rear-naked choke. Escudero had no choice but to tap out at 2:25 in round three while he was still on his feet.
KO of the Night
As fate would have it the very first fight of the night on the UFC Fight Night 22 undercard not only set the pace for the rest but also impressed White enough to hand out the KO of the Night bonus when Brian Foster defeated Forrest Petz in 67 seconds flat, which would have also earned him the shortest fight of the night bonus if there was one. Foster clearly has the investment-earnings-ratio down, just like Miller.
Fight of the Night
Another undercard bout delivered enough bang for the buck to earn the Fight of the Night bonus in the amount of $40,000 for each fighter from White although it only resulted in a decision win for Kyle Kingsbury. Nevertheless, it was not for lack of effort by him and his very evenly matched opponent, Jared Hamman, who went toe to toe for three entire rounds.
Comments
That was a good card. I'm pleasantly surprised by Oliveira's performance, it was the first time I saw him in action and I've found him quite impressive against Escudero.
PS: Miller vs. Pearson was actually on the main card.
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