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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Four fighters earned $30,000 "Fight Night" bonuses on Saturday night for their performances on The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale in Las Vegas.
Preliminary card fighters Cody McKenzie and Pablo Garza each picked up bonuses, as did Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan for their main card opening bout.
McKenzie earned his 10th career win by guillotine choke in his bout against fellow TUF 12 competitor Aaron Wilkinson. That result earned him the night's "Submission of the Night" bonus.
Garza took home the "Knockout of the Night" award for his first round flying knee knockout of Fredson Paixao. Garza, who was eliminated in the opening round of this season's TUF lightweight tournament, picked up his first win under the Zuffa banner.
Garcia and Phan took home the "Fight of the Night" bonus, but it's likely of small consolation. Garcia took the split decision victory despite what seemed to be an easy to see victory for Phan. The crowd heavily booed the decision and commentator Joe Rogan went on a rant about judges in MMA during the following fight.
Penick's Analysis: It's no surprise that the first card in UFC history featuring featherweight fights would see the bonus money going to a number of them. At least Phan got some extra money for his performance, and I hope the UFC gives him a little extra since the judges screwed him out of his win bonus. I have not yet seen the Garza KO, but by all accounts it was brutal, and Paixao was apparently down on the mat for quite some time. It's incredible that McKenzie continues to get that guillotine choke when fighters should know it's coming, but that was really impressive that he was able to pull that off once again, and his bonus was well deserved.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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