Vicente
Luque and Tyron
Woodley weren’t in the Octagon for long on Saturday, but the
time they spent together was memorable enough to earn them an
additional $50,000 apiece.
Luque and Woodley received “Fight of the Night” honors for their
frantic welterweight scrap in the UFC 260
co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. A
more-aggressive-than-usual Woodley did his best to take the fight
to Luque in the early going and briefly rocked his opponent with a
pair of right hands. However, Luque regained his bearings, hurt
Woodley with a counter right of his own, swarmed with offense and
drove his man to the canvas, where he locked in a brabo choke for
the finish 3:56 into Round 1.
Elsewhere, Francis
Ngannou was a relatively easy selection for a $50,000
“Performance of the Night” award, as he avenged a previous loss to
Stipe
Miocic to claim heavyweight gold in the evening’s headliner.
“The Predator” displayed improved takedown defense and dropped
Miocic twice, ultimately folding the Ohio-based firefighter with a
left hook and sealing his victory with one massive hammerfist 52
seconds into the second frame.
Finally, Sean O’Malley claimed the card’s other $50,000
“Performance of the Night” check with a flashy knockout win over
Thomas
Almeida in a featured bantamweight tilt. After mistakenly
assuming he had a walkoff KO in Round 1, O’Malley continued to
outstrike his opponent into the third period, where he dropped
Almeida with a laser left hand and knocked him cold with a
standing-to-ground right at the 3:52 mark of the round.