LAS VEGAS - John Howard, Chris Wilson, Clay Guida, Nate Diaz and Lyoto Machida each earned $65,000 "fight night" bonuses for their performances at "UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II."
UFC 94 took place Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and aired live on pay-per-view. The bonus amounts were up significantly from the $40,000 awards issued at UFC 93 earlier this month, and a slight increase from the $60,000 UFC 92 bonuses in December 2008.
The UFC announced the bonuses at the UFC 94 post-fight press conference and were confirmed by MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com).
With eight of the evening's 10 bouts going to the judges' scorecards -- including five by split decision -- the UFC had several close bouts to select from in choosing the evening's "Fight of the Night." With the challenge too daunting, the organization instead chose rewarded two sets of competitors.
Howard's split-decision win over Wilson on the evening's un-televised preliminary card and Guida's pay-per-view broadcast opening split-decision win over fellow lightweight Diaz each earned "Fight of the Night" recognition.
Had you been informed in advance that the night's "Knockout of the Night" bonus would come from the evening's light-heavyweight co-feature between Brazilians Machida and Silva, all bets would certainly have been on the hyper-aggressive Silva taking home the additional cash. Instead it was Machida who earned the first knockout of his career at the last possible moment of the opening round. One of just two non-decisions on the bout, the result was the evening's only true knockout. Machida will now hope to parlay the bonus into a 205-pound title shot later this year.
For the second time in three events, the evening's 10-bout card ended without a single submission. As such, no "Submission of the Night" was issued. "UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008" was the first UFC event to end without a submission since UFC Fight Night 7 on Dec. 13, 2006.
For complete coverage of "UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II," check out the UFC Events page on MMAjunkie.com.
