The Ultimate Fighting Championship was feeling especially generous following a memorable evening in the Lonestar State.
When all was said and done, $500,000 in bonus money was given out to the athletes from UFC on ESPN 52 in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night. This included $50,000 “Performance of the Night” checks to eight fighters on the card who secured finishes: Arman Tsarukyan, Jalin Turner, Sean Brady, Dustin Stoltzfus, Miesha Tate, Cody Brundage, Drakkar Klose and Jared Gooden.
Particularly noteworthy in this group were the efforts of Brundage and Klose, who became the first two fighters in UFC history to win bouts via slam KO on the same card. Elsewhere, Tsarukyan stopped Beneil Dariush in just 64 seconds in the evening’s lightweight headliner, while Turner dispatched Bobby Green 2:49 into the opening stanza of their 155-pound co-main event.
The only finisher who didn’t receive a “Performance of the Night” check was Rodolfo Bellato, but that was because he shared “Fight of the Night” honors with opponent Ihor Potieria for their back-and-forth light heavyweight clash. After nearly being finished by his Ukrainian foe, Bellato rallied to stop Potieria with a barrage of offense from mount at the 4:17 mark of Round 2.
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