There were several fights at UFC Fight Night 24 on Saturday night in Seattle that didn’t live up to expectations; fights that were thought potential producers of post-fight award winners.
But there were other bouts that delivered on the promise, with fighters providing performances that netted them bonuses of $55,000 each.
Without a shadow of a doubt, “The Korean Zombie,” Chan Sung Jung ran away with the Submission of the Night bonus. His rematch with Leonard Garcia didn’t go the way most fans expected, after a bell-to-bell slugfest in their first meeting, but he delivered a dramatic finish with one second left in round two.
Jung finished Garcia with Eddie Bravo’s patented Twister submission, something that no fighter has ever done in the Octagon. It was something that Jung learned from watching Bravo’s YouTube videos, and had longed to pull off in the UFC.
Michael McDonald and Edwin Figueroa, whose fight was featured on the UFC’s Facebook preliminary bout stream, was one that Spike TV officials surely would have cherished having time for on their broadcast.
McDonald lived up to expectations, showing the wide range of his skills earning a unanimous decision against Figueroa, but Figueroa impressed as well, taking the fight on 10 days notice, never giving in to McDonald’s efforts. Their battle was enough to earn them the Fight of the Night bonus.
The Knockout of the Night went to a fighter that didn’t make the Spike TV broadcast or the Facebook prelim stream. Johny Hendricks TKO’d T.J. Waldburger a mere minute and a half into their fight.
Each of the winners pocketed an extra $55,000 on Saturday night for a total of $220,000 in reported post-fight bonuses.