UFC Vegas 54 Bonuses: Katlyn Chookagian vs Amanda Ribas earns Fight of the Night
UFC officials announced the recipients of the performance-based fighter bonuses following Saturday’s UFC Vegas 54 fight card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Fight Of The Night: Katlyn Chookagian vs Amanda Ribas
Flyweight’s No. 1 contender Katlyn Chookagian risked her high ranking to fight Brazilian upstart and top-10 strawwight Amanda Ribas, and the two engaged in a scrappy, back-and-forth affair that saw Chookagian on the winning-end of a split decision.
Ribas started the fight quickly and got into Chookagian’s face. From there, Ribas was able to toss Chookagian to the mat and gain some control time. Chookagian rose to her feet with less than two minutes left, though, and made the most of it with high volume to end the round. The second round saw the same pace and patterns, except this time, Chookagian managed her distance and cracked Ribas with several heavy combinations before Ribas once again tossed Chookagian to the ground. Chookagian fought to her feet and landed several straight-as-an-arrow right hands to end the second round.
The third round was contested almost entirely on the feet with Chookagian in control. With a minute left, Ribas emptied the tank scoring a takedown and engaging in a thrilling exchange with “Blonde Fighter” until the final horn. In the end, Chookagian did enough to keep her top ranking while Ribas certainly put both strawweight and flyweight on notice.
Performance Of The Night: Manuel Torres
Contender Series alum Manuel Torres put together an impressive Octagon debut with his knockout win over Frank Camacho.
The fight got going early as Torres and “The Crank” exchanged a few bombs. After getting into the clinch, Torres got some space and began to piece up Camacho. As Camacho charged in with an overhand right, Torres intelligently slid back and countered with a two-punch combo that sent Camacho crumbling to the canvas and forcing the ref to stop the fight in the first round.
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Performance Of The Night: Ryan Spann
“Superman” came out victorious over “Hulk” as Ryan Spann weathered a marauding Ion Cutelaba in their co-main bout.
Spann connected with heavy shots early, including a big right hand that forced a takedown from Cutelaba. Spann returned to his feet, and they scrambled once again. As he circled out of Cutelaba’s grasp for a second time, Spann locked up a guillotine choke forcing Cutelaba to swiftly tapout mideway through the first round.