Another day, another great UFC on Fox event. We only had 3 finishes out of 11 fights but the quality of virtually every bout was high level and entertaining in some order. There is the matter of post-fight bonuses to hand out following a wild night of action, and here are your four winners:
- Knockout of the Night: Demetrious Johnson def. Joseph Benavidez by KO (punches), round 1.
- Submission of the Night: Urijah Faber def. Michael McDonald by guillotine choke, round 2.
- Fight of the Night: Edson Barboza def. Danny Castillo by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28).
Each bonus winner received what is now the customary $50,000.
Here are a few facts for each recipient:
- If you told me Johnson/Benavidez would end in a KO, I'd have logically sided with Benavidez. This was Johnson's first KO win since 2010 when he stopped Jesse Brock with a head kick. It's his first straight KO via punch since his pro debut in 2007. Mighty Mouse's win tonight marked Benavidez's first stoppage loss of any sort.
- Since edging out Benavidez to win the inaugural title, Johnson has won a bonus in all of his title defenses - FOTN against John Dodson, SOTN against John Moraga, and KOTN tonight.
- This is Faber's 5th SOTN bonus dating back to his days as the WEC featherweight champion. Seven of his last eight victories have come by submission, with all of those submissions either rear-naked chokes or guillotine chokes. It was also the only submission of the entire card, so he'd have won the award by default.
- Barboza has just 7 fights in the UFC but 4 FOTN bonuses as of tonight.
- It was a tough break for Castillo, who nearly finished Barboza in the opening round and probably should've had a draw if more than one judge had scored the 1st a 10-8, but we'll discuss that tomorrow. He's never had a reputation as an exciting fighter, nor does he have many highlight reel finishes, but in defeat he did finally record his first post-fight bonus in either the WEC or UFC.
- UFC on Fox 9: Johnson vs. Benavidez post-fight results, analysis, press conference, news
- UFC on Fox 9: Johnson vs. Benavidez results and post-fight analysis
- UFC on Fox 9 results: Demetrious Johnson KO's Joseph Benavidez in only two minutes
- UFC on Fox 9 results: Urijah Faber chokes out Michael McDonald with a guillotine in round 2
- UFC on Fox 9 results: Chad Mendes outwrestles Nik Lentz en route to unanimous decision