The Ultimate Fighting Championship ended the year by handing out
$50,000 “Performance of the Night” awards to Stephen
Thompson, Rob Font,
Marcin
Tybura and Jimmy Flick
for stellar efforts at
UFC Fight Night 183.
Thompson led the way on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas, as he used accurate straight punches, a variety of kicks and
constant movement to earn a five-round verdict against Geoff Neal in
the evening’s main event. It was the first appearance for
“Wonderboy” since a triumph against Vicente
Luque at UFC 244 in November 2019.
Elsewhere, Font also made an impressive return from a lengthy
hiatus with a quick stoppage of former title challenger Marlon
Moraes in a featured bantamweight encounter. A crisp jab from
Font had Moraes stumbling backward, and he sent his foe to the
canvas with an uppercut. From there, a barrage of powerful
ground-and-pound brought an end to the bout 3:47 into Round 1.
Tybura survived a difficult opening stanza against Greg Hardy
before rallying to put the ex-NFL standout away in the second frame
of their heavyweight main card matchup. After absorbing some solid
shots from Hardy in Round 1, the Pole grounded his opponent and
unloaded with ground-and-pound until referee Dan Miragliotta
stepped in to wave off the contest at the 4:31 mark of Round 2.
Finally, Flick garnered the evening’s final performance award
thanks to a memorable submission win over Cody Durden
at flyweight. Early on, Durden flexed his advantage with a takedown
and ground-and-pound and was also getting the better of standup
exchanges before Flick was able to execute a flying trangle for the
tapout 3:18 into the opening stanza.