There may have been several more bouts remaining when Vicente Luque and Bryan Barberena concluded their wild welterweight duel, but it was clear that one post-fight award was already secured.
Luque and Barberena received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their featured clash at UFC on ESPN 1 in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday, and when all is said and done, it may be a contender for “Fight of the Year” as well. The combatants traded punches liberally, combining to land a whopping 332 significant strikes before Luque ended the contest with knees and punches at the 4:54 mark of the third round.
Elsewhere, Kron Gracie garnered a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award for his first-round submission of Alex Caceres in a featured featherweight tilt. Gracie didn’t wait long to get Caceres down, move to his foe’s back and sink in a rear-naked choke, forcing a tapout 2:06 into the period.
Finally, Luke Sanders captured the evening’s other $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his TKO stoppage of former bantamweight king Renan Barao in a preliminary contest. The former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion floored his foe with a left hand and sealed the victory with powerful ground-and-pound 1:01 into the second stanza.