Saturday night’s UFC 124: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck II event saw “Fight Night” winners earn $100,000 in bonuses for their performances. Not since UFC 100 has the promotion handed out bonuses of this size to fighters.
Earning $100,000 was Mac Danzig, Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck, while Marc Bocek and Jim Miller split the bonus earning $50,000 each.
The “Knockout of the Night” was awarded to Mac Danzig for his first round finish of Joe Stevenson during the pay-per-view portion of the show. Danzig landed a solid left to Stevenson’s chin as his opponent moved in to press the attack. The single punch dropped Stevenson to the mat at 1:54 of the first.
The “Submission of the Night” honor was split between Marc Bocek and Jim Miller, who both earned submission wins in their bouts.
Bocek was able to finish opponent Dustin Hazelett in the first round with a triangle choke. As both men rolled for position, Bocek was able to lock in the triangle from the top position then rolled to his back to sink the choke deeper, eventually forcing the tap at 2:33.
Miller faced highly touted Charles Oliveira on the main card finishing the fight in the first round also. Oliveira looked to be setting up a submission attempt from the bottom grabbing Miller’s leg as he stood up leaving his left leg unprotected as he did. Miller quickly capitalized on the mistake by grabbing Oliveira’s leg and tried to apply an ankle lock but changed to a knee bar to earn the submission at 1:59.
For the first time in the promotions history the “Fight of the Night” bonus was awarded by fan voting, who chose main event fighters Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck for the honor. UFC president Dana White was not pleased with the fans decision saying “They blew it,” noting the fan voting would be a one-time only thing.
St-Pierre would take all five rounds against Koscheck earning a 50-45 score from all three judges. The champ would set the tone of the fight from the first round scoring with several jabs that caused Koscheck’s left eye to swell considerably. GSP used the jabs for the entire fight and Koscheck’s left eye would keep swelling each round, but not apparently enough for doctors to stop the fight. In the end, St-Pierre felt disappointed that he could not finish Koscheck but showed he’s capable of winning five rounds on his feet.