Finish? Tony Ferguson don’t need no stinkin’ finish.
Ferguson dominated Josh Thomson, winning by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26) in the biggest fight of his career up to this point. The destruction was good enough to earn Ferguson an extra $50,000 bonus for Performance of the Night, even though Ferguson couldn’t finish.
The Fight of the Night bonus went to Alan Jouban and Matt Dwyer, who each earned $50,000, and the other Performance of the Night $50K went to Frank Mir for his first-round knockout of Todd Duffee in the main event.
Ferguson (19-3) absolutely blitzed Thomson (20-8) in the second round, landing multiple elbows and almost finishing him with strikes and submissions. Thomson somehow stayed in the fight, lasting the whole way. Ferguson didn’t pour it on in the third round, but still hurt Thomson repeatedly. Coming in, Thomson was ranked No. 9 among UFC lightweight contender and Ferguson was No. 11.
Jouban got dropped in the first round against Dwyer and also landed an illegal knee that cost him a point. Somehow, though, he came back to take the unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27) in an exceptionally violent fight.
Speaking of violent, Mir and Duffee tried to take each other’s heads off for 1:13 when Mir connected with a left hand while Duffee was coming in. Duffee went out immediately.