UFC 87 bonuses: St. Pierre, Fitch, Maia and Emerson earn $60,000 each
by Dann Stupp on Aug 10, 2008 at 6:13 am ET
Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch, Demian Maia and Rob Emerson each won $60,000 "fight night" bonuses stemming from Saturday's UFC 87 event at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
The bonuses were announced in a post-event press conference and confirmed by MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) soon after the pay-per-view event.
Although the majority of the night's fights ended via decision, only one -- the night's main event -- earned bonus honors.
St. Pierre, who made his first successful title defense with a shutout unanimous-decision victory over Fitch, split "Fight of the Night" honors with the former top contender. The five-round fight was clearly dominated by St. Pierre, though Fitch's resiliency kept him in the game. For their efforts, each headliner earned a $60,000 bonus check in addition to their base salaries.
Ground wizard Demian Maia, who took another step toward title contention with his third consecutive UFC victory, earned a Submission of the Night award with his win over gatekeeper Jason MacDonald. Although his opponent fended off a multiple attempts, Maia eventually secured a rear-naked choke and forced MacDonald to tap out at 2:44 of the third round.
Ben Saunders, who defeated Ryan Thomas via second-round arm-bar in the night's opening bout, was Maia's only competition for the award.
As for Knockout of the Night bonus, Rob Emerson needed just 12 seconds to claim it. After avoiding opponent Manny Gamburyan's wild swings, Emerson landed a stiff right. The blow sent "The Ultimate Fighter 5" runner-up to the mat, and his former castmate planted a short left hook to force the stoppage in the night's shortest bout. Had he not got tangled in Gamburyan's legs after the initial punch, Emerson could have made a run at the UFC's record for the quickest knockout, which stands at eight seconds.
Emerson's only competition for the bonus was Cheick Kongo, who defeated Dan Evensen via first-round TKO in a preliminary bout.
