UFC Pittsburgh turned in an impressive finishing rate Saturday night, which left plenty of candidates for Performance bonuses scattered throughout the card. Scattered? Actually, they made up the bulk of the action. With only two of ten fights going to the judges’ scorecards, a number of fighters were looking to make a statement. After UFC Fight Night 116, four are fifty thousand dollars richer, including “Platinum” Mike Perry and Uriah Hall.
Perry, who anchored the co-main event of the evening, saw his fight week thrown into turmoil when original opponent Thiago Alves pulled out last minute. Newcomer Alex Reyes stepped up, but was almost instantly floored by a Perry knee just over a minute into their scrap. Hopefully, the fifty grand made up for Perry losing a higher caliber opponent, and he’ll be looking to make a big jump up in competition next. After the bout, he called out former champion Robbie Lawler.
The Ultimate Fighter 17 standout Uriah Hall, meanwhile, got back in the win column after running up an 0-3 slide in his past three fights. Hall found himself under fire early and often in the first round of his scrap with Krzysztof Jotko, but showed heart and determination, hanging on to escape the round. In the second, he was able to correct course, and finished the Polish fighter midway through the round, setting things up with a perfectly placed right hand.
Fight of the Night was absolutely no surprise. In a back-and-forth war that saw one of the best opening rounds of the year in the UFC, Gregor Gillespie and Jason Gonzalez had fans on their feet. The pair slugged it out on the feet, Gillespie scored a number of takedowns, and both showed a ton of heart in a bloody battle that ended with Gillespie sinking in an arm-triangle choke just past the two minute mark into the second frame.
UFC Fight Night 116, otherwise known as UFC Pittsburgh, took place at the PPG Points Arena in Pittsburgh Saturday September 16. Luke Rockhold forced David Branch to submit to strikes in the main event.
