Earlier tonight (Sat. May 9th, 2020) UFC 249 took place from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
The empty arena played host to Justin Gaethje claiming the Interim Lightweight Championship by defeating Tony Ferguson by TKO in the 5th round. In the Co-Main event, we saw Henry Cejudo defeat all-time great bantamweight Dominick Cruz by TKO in the second round. After his victory Cejudo announced his retirement from the sport. The former two-division champion decided it was in his best interest to call it a day and focus his time on his family. Outside of these two fights, there were many great moments on what was an incredible card overall.
Fight of the night came in the main event of the evening in which Justin Gaethje claimed his first taste of UFC gold defeating Tony Ferguson. The bout went into the 5th round taking place entirely on the feet, while Tony led the dance coming forward it was Gaethje landing the bigger blows battering Ferguson’s face with huge shots for the duration of the fight. Ferguson however, didn’t show to be phased from this absorbing the strikes until the fight was stopped by the referee in the 5th round. This fight also pocketed Gaethje a performance of the night bonus bringing his total to 9 bonuses in 7 fights.
Right before the co-main event, we saw Francis Ngannou pick up a performance of the night bonus knockout of Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Coming into this fight it was tipped to be fireworks as two heavy hitters do battle and it sure was as advertised. Both fighters have a slew of first-round knockouts on their records with Francis being able to add another tonight coming only 20 seconds into the first round.
Do you agree with who received bonuses?
Who did you think deserved a bonus at UFC249?