Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White announced the “Fight Night” winners for UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar following the event, awarding a bonus of $70,000 to Rony ‘Jason’ Mariano Bezerra, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Jon Fitch and Erick Silva.
Bezerra earned his bonus for “Knockout of the Night”, while ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira was awarded the “Submission of the Night” despite their being three other submission finishes, leaving “Fight of the Night” to welterweights Fitch and opponent Silva.
UFC 153 took place on Oct. 13, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pay-per-view event drew an attendance of 16,844 fans for a live gate between $2.5-2.6 million.
Bezerra faced off with TUF 15 competitor Sam Sicilia, with both fighters battling back-and-forth over two rounds. In the last minute of the second, ‘Jason’ would catch opponent with a big right sending Sicilia to the mat where Bezerra would follow up with hammerfists to earn the TKO stoppage at 4:16 of the round.
Nogueira would earn his first “Submission of the Night” bonus for tapping out Dave Herman in the second round with an armbar. Despite having ‘Pee Wee’ in several bad situations earlier in the round, Herman was able to escape. In the end though, Herman would find his arm trapped and could find no way of escaping, forcing to tap out at 4:31.
Fitch promised fans he’d be more exciting and he was just that against Brazilian Erick Silva. For the most part Silva appeared not to respect Fitch by keeping his hands lowered for most of the fight, and would end up paying as Fitch scored numerous takedowns. Silva would though, land some very tight submission attempts, having Fitch’s back with a rear-naked choke locked in at one point, but the former title contender stayed relaxed and fought off the attack. A tired, and dejected looking Silva, was dominated in the third with Fitch controlling from the top position for most of the round. The judges would score the fight 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28 all for Fitch.