The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) traveled to Melboure, Victoria, Australia for the second time in promotional history with UFC Fight Night 101: Whittaker vs Brunson. The night of scraps had its ups and downs, but mostly downs, seeing 10 of 13 bouts go the distance. After the event concluded, the UFC awarded $50,000 to two fighters for ‘Performance of the Night’ and two fighters for ‘Fight of the Night’. The lines to wager on these props were available at Several Bookmakerss. UFC Fight Night 101’s post-fight bonus winners were… Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson earn Fight of the Night honors for their four-minute war in the main event of the evening in Melbourne, where Brunson got the better of the Kiwi fighter on the feet for the majority of the stanza. But Brunson’s poor defense and wrecklessness ended up costing him big, as Whittaker was able to capitalize with a counter to hurt him and a head-kick to drop him, and then a barrage of punches until the referee was forced to intervene and halt the action. Earning the biggest victory of his professional mixed martial arts career, Whittaker has entered the UFC middleweight title picture and will likely take on fellow contender Gegard Mousasi his next time out. Whittaker versus Brunson was an entertaining round of action and deserved the evening’s bonus, especially considering there was no other fight that really stood out. Noteworthy fight(s): – None. Robert Whittaker earns Performance of the Night for his aforementioned first-round TKO of Derek Brunson in the main event of the evening at UFC Fight Night 101 in Melbourne. Tyson Pedro earns Performance of the Night for his first-round rear-naked choke victory over Los Angeles native Khalil Rountree on the evening’s main card. It was a great promotional debut for Pedro, who kept his undefeated record intact by improving it to 5-0 with the finish. A solid addition to the UFC’s light heavyweight division, fight fans have a new 205-pounder to be excited about. Noteworthy Performance(s): – Alex Volkanovski defeated Yusuke Kasuya via second-round TKO in his UFC debut and made plenty of fans with his performance. – Dan Kelly defeated Chris Camozzi via unanimous decision victory after three rounds of action that saw him get the better of the Colorado native both on the feet and on the mat to earn the nod from the judges at Octagon-side. Kelly scored yet again as an underdog in another upset ,and at 40 years of age, he is quickly becoming one of the more popular middleweights on the UFC’s roster.
