UFC 120 bonuses: Bisping, Akiyama, Condit and Sass earn $60K awards
Posted on October 17, 2010, 11:27 AM by Joey SantosusUFC 120 Competitors Michael Bisping, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Carlos Condit, and Paul Sass were each awarded a hefty $60k bonus for their performance in London, England Saturday.
Sass showcased impressive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in his bout with Mark Holst, securing a triangle choke and forcing Holst to tap late in the opening round. The victory improves his record to 11-0 and earned him "Submission of the Night" honors in his promotional debut.
Condit reminded fans why he is known as "The Natural Born Killer," scoring a vicious knockout victory over Dan Hardy. The bout remained competitive until late in the first round, as both men unloaded with huge left hooks with Condit's hitting the mark first, sending Hardy crashing down hard and subsequently securing the "Knockout of the NIght" bonus for the former WEC champ.
Finally, the main event did not disappoint, as Bisping and Akiyama opted to stand toe to toe for the duration of the bout. While Akiyama threatened to end things early, landing big in the first round, Bisping kept his composure and effectively picked his opponent apart to pick up a unanimous decision win. While Bisping was successful in scoring the victory for the hometown crowd, both men walked away with "Fight of the Night" honors and nice bonus to go with it.
Michael Bisping vs Yoshihiro Akiyama: Fight of the Night
Carlos Condit: Knockout of the Night
Paul Sass: Submission of the Night
Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC - Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Comments
Akiyama has got 3 FOTN awards in a row. Dana is gonna keep him around for a while.
I'd like to see him stay, hopefully he'll go down to 170. I'm pretty sure he'll get the Kieth Jardine treatment and have to lose two more fights in a row before Dana will cut him.
Akiyama is already a big middleweight. There's no way he's making 170. He looked bigger than Bisping who used to fight at 205.
He looked bigger???? He's 3 inches shorter and is just about as muscular as Bisping, if you think he's big, go watch his fight against Belcher again.
Shorter doesnt really apply here. Yama had way more muscle mass
I heard he doesn't cut weight. That's just what I heard.
so glad to see that punk hardy brought down to reality and shown he is just a lucky puncher!!!....and mad props to Condit for doing something in 1 round, that GSP couldn't do in 5!!!!!
@ Toni
True that, but with that said, GSP nearly broke Hardy's shoulder; he could have, but chose not to. GSP's biggest problem in that fight - too nice a guy. I don't think he'd make the same mistake twice. I think next time Rush is in that situation, he's going to break what he needs to break, if the fighter won't tap.
Either way, it was a great fight for Condit; loved it and had called him for the victory; Carlos is a serious fighter. I look forward to seeing him in the Octagon against The Champ.
i have no problem with the way sass handles himself when he fights as 2/3 of my wins are from triangle.... BUT there is no way he is going to survive in the ufc by pulling guard everychance he gets... if he faces someone who can use wrestling in reverse and keep it standing sass will get knocked out for sure.... guys like edgar, penn maynard, florian and dunham would not get subbed by sass...... still none the less he has a great record with scary stats
actually it was both left hooks, not right hooks
I agree with that. I hate Hardy before every fight but he seems really humble after losses.
i dont think people realise how close that was to a legit double KO.. it hurt condit... but if it was a lil tighter it easlily could have put him to sleep aswell... full credit to being the first fighter ever to ko hardy...
Frank Mir KTFO's Cro Cop and Dana White refuses to give him a bonus and says he has no heart.
Bisping and Akiyama get fight of the night for that??? I'm not saying it was a bad fight but the Pyle Hathaway fight was much better.
i got to disagree... hathaway didnt pose any threat to pyle akiyama and bisping both put on a good show.... and thats what fight of the night is about both fighters doing well having gd and bad moments.... you wouldn have a fight where one person dominates the other like koscheck daley as fotn
Coz crocop n mir both playing safe unlike bisping akiyama they go all out..
The reason Mir didn't get a knockout of the night was because he spent 14min either hugging with CroCop at the fence or running away from him.
Akiyama landed less than half the shots Bisping did and other than one shot at the beginning of the 1st round, didn't really threaten. It was really not very competitive.
No he landed more than Bisp for the first minute or so. A few good lead hooks, he landed a couple more big rights throughout the fight one or two shook Bisp again. He had a mad Rush at the end of round 2 that would've won him the round if it had been more even (to say one petty little take down has won rounds more easily than that) and he desperately tried to land something big in the dying seconds, falling from exhaustion as soon as the Bell went. True it was a very dominant performance by Bisps but Yoshi had us believing he could have turned the fight at any moment. I'd given up on Hathaway by the middle of round 2.
mir vs cro cop was one of the worst fights ive ever seen, slow and boring, and 2 fighters clearly out of title contention both needed a win desperately and fought like they didnt care, garbage fight, Bisping was aggressive and fast, i dont think the asian went for it as much as he should of because bisping clearly wasnt hurting him but it was definatley a legitimate fight of the night
Man sass is one lucky ass. 60k bonus!!! Im betting he was payed under 10k in the be there in the first place. Cha chink!
I hope this motivates fighters to go for more exciting finishes.
I can't remember who it was that said it on the MMA Hour but it was an interesting point, to remove the win bonus and instead give everyone that finished an opponent a bonus. So you have a TKO/KO/Sub bonus of like 100k and maybe something like a War bonus of 100k for fights like Bisping/Akiyama where a great fight goes to a decision and on top of that another 200k for Fight of the Night.
Would be a cool system that would really encourage people to go for the finish.
Another thing is to change the way you judge fights as well obviously, where basically the guy who was the closest to winning the fight at any given time during the fight, wins.
Man sass is one lucky ass. 60k bonus!!! Im betting he was payed under 10k in the be there in the first place. Cha chink!
I hope this motivates fighters to go for more exciting finishes.
the bonuses are obviously meant to make fighters want to finish fights, and to give it their all.
Condit should get all the bonus money, especially Bisping's for being a snore once again.
@CageRage
Haha.... you don't like Bisping do you?
i dont see how you can say bisping was boring, he was very aggressive and lander a hell of a lot of punches, its not his fault he lacks power, but i thought bisping was fast aggressive and very active. but if he did get a title shot his striking will be a joke compared to silvas haha
No, not really. He's a decent fighter but he is just so easy to dislike. I try to remain unbiased and comment on performances only, as it is unfair to judge like that, but I get carried away every time Bisping spouts off at the mouth.
@CageRage
I guess we all have our fighters that get under our skin a little. Haha and what makes it funny to me is that he is a good striker (not because of the Akiyama fight btw) but he has that weak punching power. He was hitting Akiyama with everything but still didn't knock him out hahaha. Even Nick Diaz knocks people silly.
Personally found that fight very entertaining. my only disapointment was that yama didnt use any judo
Sass stand up is shit. If he faces a better wrestler he will lose
Good point. He pulled guard pretty easy though. I think he needs to get more well rounded to compete in the division.