The Ultimate Fighting Championship produced back to back nights of scraps with the TUF 20 Finale on Friday night (Dec. 12, 2014) and UFC on FOX 13 last night (Dec. 13, 2014). After each event concluded, the UFC awarded $50,000 bonus checks to two fighters for ‘Performance of the Night’ and two fighters for ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. The lines to wager on these props were available at Several Bookmakerss. Carla Esparza earned Performance of the Night honors for her third round rear naked choke submission win over Rose Namajunas in what was the main event of the evening at this past Friday night’s TUF 20 Finale, and for the inaugural UFC Women’s Strawweight title. The former Invicta FC strawweight champion looked very impressive throughout the bout, dominating every single round and ultimately finishing the fight in the third frame. She will be making her first UFC Women’s Strawweight title defense against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who defeated Nova Uniao’s Claudia Gadelha via split decision at last night’s UFC on FOX 13 after three competitive rounds of action. Yancy Medeiros earned Performance of the Night honors for his first round guillotine choke victory over Massachusetts native Joe Proctor at this past Friday night’s The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Finale. He hurt Proctor with a spinning back kick to the body, and when Proctor went for the single-leg takedown, the Hawaiian was quick to grab hold of his neck and sink in a guillotine choke against the cage and earning the tap. Now on a two fight winning streak, fight fans look forward to the Diaz brothers’ protégé’s next outing. Ian Entwistle earned Performance of the Night honors for his heel-hook submission win over highly touted bantamweight prospect Anthony Birchak at last night’s UFC on FOX 13 in Phoenix. Entwistle got a hold of the submission at the start of the fight, and after Birchak successfully rolled and defended for a bit, the cage ultimately cut him off and he was forced to tap at just over a minute into the very first round of action. That was the seventh career submission victory for “Enty” and his third by heel-hook. It was a solid outing by the 28 year old Brit, who picked up his first UFC win, and ultimately bounced back into the win column. Matt Mitrione earned Performance of the Night honors for his first round TKO victory over the veteran Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga. It was another very impressive outing by The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 veteran, who is now on a three fight winning streak with all three wins coming by way of knockout in the very first round of action. Jessica Penne and Randa Markos earned Fight of the Night honors for their hard fought, closely contested three round battle at this past Friday night’s The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Finale. It was a very exciting scrap that featured entertaining exchanges on the mat, as well as on the feet. Both women gave it their all for all 15 minutes of action, and after they left it all in the cage, the judges awarded Penne the victory by split decision. This was one of the two (out of 11) fight’s I recommended wagering on in my Your Best Bets for the TUF 20 Finale article, so a humble brag for me and a congratulations for all those who tailed. Junior dos Santos and Stipe Miocic earned Fight of the Night honors for their five round war in the main event of last night’s UFC on FOX 13 in Phoenix. The Brazilian and the Croatian went back and forth for all 25 minutes and had a classic heavyweight war. They both had their moments and it was a very close fight that was left in the hands of the judges, who gave it to dos Santos by unanimous decision, although somewhat controversial. Despite coming out on the losing end of this battle, Miocic won over many fans with his performance and raised his stock. He may have gotten his second career loss in his professional mixed martial arts record, but I think the promotion sees that fight as a win for both fighters, so I would not be surprised to see the Ohio firefighter paired up against a heavyweight coming off a win the next time he steps inside the Octagon.
