The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was back in Houston, TX for the fourth time in promotional history this past Saturday night (October 3, 2015) with UFC 192: Cormier vs Gustafsson. After a wild and exciting night of fights, the UFC handed out four $50,000 checks to four fighters for ‘Performance of the Night’ and ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. The option to wager on such props was made available at Several Bookmakerss. Here are the Bonus Award Winners from UFC 192… Albert Tumenov earned Performance of the Night honors for his very impressive first round TKO of fellow striker Alan Jouban, handing the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu fighter the first loss of his UFC career while simultaneously making it four in a row for himself; three of the wins coming by T/KO. Tumenov and Jouban exchanged blows from the early going of the stanza, and after hurting Jouban a number of times, he finally wrapped it up just under the 3:00 mark of the round. The impressive victory may not get him into the welterweight division’s Top 15 rankings, however, he will almost surely draw ranked opposition for his next outing. Adriano Martins earned Performance of the Night honors for his first round knockout of undefeated Dagestani lightweight prospect Islam Makhachev. The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) fighter’s confidence was high and defense low, and with Martins timing his powerful counter-hooks the way he does, the recipe for this scrap was in the book. The highlight reel victory puts the Brazilian on an impressive three fight winning streak and I expect he will be matched-up against ranked opposition for his next outing inside the Octagon. Other noteworthy performances: – Ryan Bader defeated Rashad Evans via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards following three (mostly one-sided) rounds of action. Bader badly wanted the win and it showed in his performance, where he continued to show his constantly improving all-around mixed martial arts skill-set. His main weapon in this co-main event contest was the jab, which he employed beautiful for 15-minutes of action en route to earning the unanimous nod from the judges at Octagon-side. Having been looked over for a title shot once, it would be a real shame if he does not get his crack at the crown now, following that fantastic performance. – Rose Namajunas defeated Angela Hill via technical standing read naked choke submission in the very first round of action. It was a very good outing by Namajunas and a great way for her to return to the win column, following her failed bid for the UFC’s inaugral strawweight championship title. – Sage Northcutt defeated Francisco Trevino by TKO at only 0:57 into the very first round of action. The 19-year old blitzed his fellow Legacy FC veteran and once Trevino was hurt, he went into kill-mode and after a brief moment, the referee had seen enough and halted the action, awarding Northcutt the biggest win of his professional mixed martial arts career. It was a very impressive Octagon debut for the newcomer Northcutt, and fight fans eagerly await his next fight booking. Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson went to war for 25-minutes in this five round championship Pay Per View main event. Both men had their moments throughout the title fight, but it was Cormier who got the better of most of the action, ultimately taking home a split decision victory on the judges’ scorecards, though many watching the fight felt it should have been unanimous. It was such a great fight that UFC President Dana White is already talking about an instant rematch, though personally, I would prefer to see what is right and that is Ryan Bader getting his shot, given Jon Jones is not yet ready to return to action. Other noteworthy fights: – Julianna Pena defeated Jessica Eye via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards following three entertaining, back-and-forth rounds of action. The fight was entirely a grappling affair that saw both ladies have their moments, but it was Pena who spent much more time in dominant position, doing more damage en route to the unanimous nod on the cards. They both had each other in trouble with submission attempts but both displayed great heart by surviving all trouble and making it through to the final bell. – The aforementioned Tumenov vs Jouban bout.
