Four fighters received bonuses out of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 83 event, with headliner Donald Cerrone, main carder Chris Camozzi, and UFC Fight Pass prelim competitors Lauren Murphy and Kelly Faszholz each taking home an extra $50,000.
Cerrone’s “Performance of the Night” award came in the night’s main event, as he scored a slick submission win over Alex Oliveira. The Brazilian had been having some success on the feet on short notice, but Cerrone smartly shifted to the ground, getting it there off a well-timed takedown. He quickly mounted, then snuck his leg high to set up a mounted triangle, and Oliveira tapped quickly after Cerrone rolled to his back to tighten it up.
It was Cerrone’s ninth fight night bonus in his 20th UFC appearance, which was contrasted by Camozzi’s “Performance of the Night” win, as that was his first ever bonus in his 15th UFC appearance.
The middleweight veteran of The Ultimate Fighter’s eleventh season is in his third stint in the organization, but hadn’t exactly been known for thrilling fights in the past. However, a rapid-fire and brutal series of knees to Joe Riggs on Sunday night changed that. The sequence came after Camozzi rocked Riggs with a jab, and he unleashed five straight knees while holding Riggs’ head down, and though many were blocked, Riggs’ forearm was broken by them, and he finally took one to the chin to go down.
Finally, the violent and competitive prelim fight between Murphy and Faszholz took the “Fight of the Night” honors for the card. Murphy, the former Invicta Bantamweight Champion, finally scored her first UFC victory after close decision losses to title challengers Sara McMann and Liz Carmouche, and did so with brutality in the final round. Faszholz had stepped in on short notice for the fight after one of many injury removals, and she proved a game competitor, trading with Murphy through much of the fight. The vet got the best of it, however, and in a vicious final stretch in the fight, she got the bloodied up Faszholz to the ground, mounted, and started unloading punches and elbows to the head that continued messing her face up. The blows caused the referee to step in with only five seconds left in the bout.
[Photo (c) Jayne Kamin-Oncea via USA Today Sports]
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