Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports
Winners of the “Fight Night” bonus, handed out by UFC President Dana White, earned $65,000 for their performances at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on Saturday night as part of the UFC on Versus 6 show.
Pocketing the extra coin were main event fighters Anthony Johnson, Stefan Struve, Matt Wiman and Mac Danzig.
Also of note for the Versus televised event, the Verizon Center set a record for all previous Versus shows by bringing in a total of 9,380 fans into attendance for a live gate total of $706,775.
“Knockout of the Night” went to welterweight Anthony Johnson, who came out firing on all cylinders against opponent Charlie Brenneman. Johnson had been criticized for promising a standup war against Dan Hardy but failed to deliver using his wrestling to grind out an uneventful decision. On Saturday, Johnson came out kicking, literally, connecting with Brenneman’s face solidly twice in a span of about 15 seconds. Referee Mario Yamasaki jumped in after the second kick to stop the fight at 2:49 of the first.
‘The Skykscraper’ Stefan Struve earned the “Submission of the Night” bonus for tapping out Pat Barry in the second. Struve and Barry traded strikes in the first round, with the Dutch fighter under-utilizing his 6’11″ frame to keep Barry’s 5’11″ size at bay. In the second, Struve would take the fight to the mat after getting wobbled by Barry after an uppercut. Once on the ground, Struve used his long legs to transition to a triangle choke, and despite Barry slamming his opponent to the mat it only helped to tighten the choke. Barry was left with no choice but to tap at 3:22 of the second.
“Fight of the Night” went to Matt Wiman and Mac Danzig for their three round re-match, which down to a 29-28 decision win from all three judges to Wiman. Both men had first squared off at UFC 115, with Wiman winning a technical decision after securing a choke hold on Danzig. The referee mistakenly thought Danzig was out, stopping the fight despite the fact that Danzig never tapped and was in no danger of passing out. This time, both fighters showed some non-stop action for the first two rounds, standing and on the ground. By the third, things had slowed down with both fighters jockeying for position and despite Danzig securing a last second guillotine, Wiman was in no danger.