The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded a total of $200,000 in “Fight Night” bonuses for Saturday nights UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Rockhold event. Bonuses of $50,000 each went to fighters Vitor Belfort, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Lucas Martins and Jeremy Larsen.
The winners were announced at the post-fight press conference by UFC officials.
UFC on FX 8 took place at the Arena Jaraguá in Jaraguá do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil with the main card airing on FX, while the prelim card was split between Fuel TV and streaming videon on Facebook.
The promotions first trip to Santa Catarina drew an announced attendance of 7,642 into the Arena Jaraguá.
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, here is the UFC.com “bonus recap.”
To the surprise of nobody, headliner Vitor Belfort took home Knockout of the Night for his first-round finish of Luke Rockhold. After engaging in several back-and-forth exchanges early in the round, “The Phenom” landed a spinning back kick to Rockhold’s jaw, sending the former Strikeforce middleweight champion crashing to the mat. Belfort followed up with punches on the ground before the referee stepped in. Belfort has now won two straight bouts by way of head kick.
The bonus for Belfort was his second straight “KOTN” bonus following his second round TKO finish of Michael Bisping last January in the main event of UFC on FX 7.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza earned Submission of the Night for submitting Chris Camozzi in the co-main event. The former Strikeforce champ took Camozzi to the ground early in the first round, then showed off his formidable grappling skills with an arm triangle choke that put the TUF vet to sleep within seconds.
The win for Souza was his fourth straight victory, all by finishes, improving his record under the Strikeforce banner and in the UFC to 8-1 with a decision loss to Luke Rockhold for the Strikeforce middleweight title.
Fight of the Night went to show openers Lucas Martins and Jeremy Larsen. The lightweight fighters put on an exciting, back-and-forth brawl that saw both men staggered and bloodied. Martins ultimately won via third-round knockout.
The bout between Martins and Larsen was the second Octagon match for both men, with Martins improving to 1-1 and Larsen falling to 0-2.
