Returning champion Georges St-Pierre defeats intierm champ Carlos Condit to unify the belt at UFC 154 – image via Facebook.com/UFC
Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White payed out $280,000 in bonus money between the four ‘Fight Night’ bonus recipients for their work at Saturday’s UFC 154 event.
Earning an extra $70,000 each were Johny Hendricks, Ivan Menjivar, as well as headliners Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit.
UFC 154: St-Pierre vs. Condit took place on Nov. 17, 2012 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with the main card airing on pay-per-view while the prelim card was split between FX television and streaming video on Facebook.
White also announced an attendance of 17,249 fans into the Bell Centre for a live gate of $3.143 million.
“Knockout of the Night” went to co-main event welterweight Johny Hendricks who needed just 46-seconds to finish opponent Martin Kampmann in the first round. Hendricks, standing in a south-paw stance, threw a right hook and followed it up with a left cross which connected flush with Kampmann’s chin. ‘The Hitman’ was out on his feet, dropping his arms and falling back onto the mat. ‘Bigg Rigg’ followed it up with one more punch before the referee was able to intervene.
Menjivar welcomed newcomer Azamat Gashimov into the Octagon, finishing things in the first round with an armbar to earn the “Submission of the Night” bonus, the second of Menjivar’s career. Gashimov used a trip to take Menjivar to the mat but ended up on the wrong side of an armbar which the Russian attempted to escape only to be further caught up in a belly-down armbar from ‘The Pride of El Salvador.’
St-Pierre returned to the Octagon following a nineteen month absence to earn a unanimous decision over Condit in order to unify the welterweight title, earning both men the “Fight of the Night” bonus. GSP did not appear to lose a step after a knee injury, going 7/7 in takedown attempts throughout the five rounds. The champ opened up a cut on Condit’s forehead in the early rounds, bloodying up Condit for the rest of the match. Condit remained a danger throughout the fight on his back or in the standup, at one point looking as if he’d finish St-Pierre following a head kick in the third round which dropped the French-Canadian but was unable to capitalize. In the end the judges saw the bout for St-Pierre by scores of 49-46, 50-45 and 50-45.