UFC Belfast Bonuses: Four Fighters Nab Performance Of The Night
The first half of Saturday’s (November 19, 2016) UFC doubleheader went down in the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The main event pit familiar foes against one another, as Uriah Hall met Gegard Mousasi in a rematch of their spectacular first fight. ‘The Dreamcatcher’ exacted revenge on Hall, winning by first-round TKO.
Neither man earned a post-fight bonus though. Those would go to Jack Marshman, Kevin Lee, Justin Ledet, and Abdul Razak Alhassan.
UFC newcomer Marshman earned his extra ,000 for his back and forth battle with Octagon veteran Magnus Cedenblad. After rocking the Swede badly in the first five minutes, the Welshman got taken down and found himself eating heavy ground and pound. He survived the round and went back to work with his boxing in round two. He put ‘Jyken’ on wobbly legs on multiple occasions before putting him down for good with punches. Marshman was bloodied but clearly ecstatic at winning his UFC debut.
‘The Motown Phenom’ Lee dominated the surging Magomed Mustafaev with his superior wrestling. Lee nearly earned the tap in round one with a rear-naked choke, but the Russian survived to see a second round. Lee took his man down again, took his back, and cinched in another choke. To his credit, Mustafaev refused to tap, but Lee put the squeeze on, rendering his foe unconscious and forcing the referee to step in. Lee banked an extra $50,000 for his impressive grappling display.
Ledet used the same maneuver to finish British UFC newcomer Mark Godbeer. The American decided to forgo the boxing that won him his UFC debut. He took Godbeer down, moved to the back, and sunk his arm under his adversary’s chin to elicit the submission in the very first round. Ledet goes home $50,000 richer for the one-sided shellacking he handed down.
Finally, the least surprising bonus went to the winner of the curtain-jerker. Alhassan and Charlie Ward threw bombs in the pocket just as most predicted they would, and the Arlington, Texas native came out on top. The undefeated Alhassan had yet to be in a fight that lasted longer than 90 seconds, and Ward couldn’t push him past that point either. Alhassan floored Ward multiple times before polishing him off just 53 seconds into round number one.
Stay locked to LowKickMMA for all the coverage of this fight-loaded Saturday.
