SAVED BY THE BELL!
Giles and Krause closing out the prelims in STYLE! #UFC247 pic.twitter.com/dObtZ6b5lP
— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2020
James Krause agreed to face Trevin Giles on extremely short notice at UFC 247, and the pairing proved to be beneficial for the bank accounts of both men.
Giles and Krause received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their entertaining preliminary middleweight scrap on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston. Krause, who stepped in for Antonio Arroyo on one day’s notice, nearly finished Giles with a rear-naked choke in the opening stanza. Giles survived and relied on his superior size and power down the stretch to capture a hard-fought split-decision triumph.
Elsewhere, Kalinn Williams garnered a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check for his surprising stoppage of Alex Morono at welterweight. Williams, a short-notice replacement for Dhiego Lima, rocked Morono with a left hook at the outset and finished his foe with a volley of punches near the fence to get the stoppage 27 seconds into the opening stanza.
Finally, Mario Bautista earned the card’s other $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for a spectacular finish of Miles Johns in a preliminary bantamweight affair. After a slow-paced first round, Bautista floored Johns with a flying knee in Round 2 and sealed the victory with punches on the mat 1:41 into the period.