Anthony Johnson isn’t just leaving Stockholm, Sweden with the biggest win of his career and a title shot opposite UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but an additional $50,000 in bonus money as the surging contender claimed a Performance of the Night award at UFC on FOX 14 on Saturday night.
The UFC made the announcement at the event’s post-fight press conference.
Johnson made short work of Alexander Gustafsson in the main event, putting away the former title challenger at 2:15 of the first round. The two traded a few punches early, although neither of them landed anything to sway the course of the fight. An inadvertent eye poke from Gustafsson also temporarily stopped the fight. As it resumed, however, Rumble took over, landing a crisp right hand that stumbled the Swede. Gustafsson backtracked and even connected with a few counterstrikes of his own, but was dropped from another big Johnson punch.
From there and on his elbows and knees, Johnson unloaded on Gustafsson until the referee was forced to stop the bout.
Johnson was merely one of four fighters who earned $50,000 each and a Performance of the Night bonus. In the co-main event, Gegard Mousasi also earned the designation.
Mousasi did so by stopping former PRIDE and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson, also in the first round. As Henderson tried to close the distance to land his trademark right hand, Mousasi used a range-finding jab to keep him at bay. At just the right moment, Mousasi scored a right hand that landed to the side of the head that dropped the former Olympian. As Mousasi followed up when Henderson collapsed against the cage, Mousasi fired off two more shots before the referee stopped the bout at 1:10 of the first. Henderson complained about the stoppage, but it was too little, too late.
Also earning a Performance of the Night bonus and prize money is welterweight Kenny Robertson. The American was able to do it by stopping Bellator veteran Sultan Aliev with an overhand counter left off a spinning back kick from the Dagestani native that badly hurt the Russian. While Robertson couldn’t get much going in his traditional strong suit of wrestling, he had no problem putting away Aliev with a series of additional punches once he was hurt. He did as much, forcing a referee stoppage at just 2:42 of round 1.
Last, but certainly not least, UFC newcomer Makwan Amirkhani of Finland also claimed his $50,000 bonus pay and a Performance of the Night bonus with a starching of Andy Ogle. As the bell rang, Amirkhani charged across the Octagon and landed a flush flying knee that sent Ogle crashing to the mat. An additional right hand prompted the referee to save Ogle, halting the bout at just 8 seconds into the contest.