For all the grief we give the guy, we owe him a second photo of this submission. (Pic: UFC.com)
There were a score of unofficial bonuses dealt out last night. Tito got to keep his job and shut up his many, many detractors. Cruz evened the scorecards against Faber and avenged his only loss. Chris Leben bounced back from a crippling Gummi Bear addiction to score a vicious 27 second KO victory over Wanderlei Silva. As if that weren’t enough, the UFC handed out a quartet of its official, more financially lucrative $75k bonuses as well.
It was the UFC’s first bout for the Bantamweight strap, and Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber did their damnedest to put the little guys on the map in their “Fight of the Night” performance. They gave us five full rounds of the high-energy, dynamic style best exemplified by the sport’s lower weight divisions, and in doing so they may have secured a rubber-match in the near future.
He not only needed a win, he needed it against an opponent that few gave him a chance of beating. Tito Ortiz didn’t just earn the victory, he ended the fight in under two minutes and picked up the evening’s “Submission of the Night” bonus along the way. This was a very big win for the former champion, and it felt a little nostalgic to see the old “grave digger” routine once again.
UFC 132’s “Knock Out of the Night” was delivered by Carlos Condit, who earned his third straight bonus courtesy of a flying knee that dropped Dong “Stun Gun” Kim. A few follow up punches on the ground put Kim out just shy of three minutes into the first round. Now riding a four fight win streak with three consecutive stoppages, expect Condit’s calls for a title shot to grow louder.