Jason Knight is about to be doubly upset. Not only was he arguably robbed in a split decision loss against Makwan Amirkhani, but ‘Hick Diaz’ was also denied an extra $50,000.
Though his scrap against Amirkhani had the potential to earn Fight of the Night honors at UFC Liverpool, much as the judges overlooked Jason Knight’s slick ground game, the UFC overlooked his fight’s bonus-worthy potential. Instead, the promotion opted to hand out four Performance of the Night honors.
No Fight of the Night bonus was awarded at the event as a result.
Among the bonus winners was Claudio Silva, who returned to action after nearly four years on the sidelines. Having struggled with injuries during that span, it looked like he might be put away early by Canada’s Nordine Taleb. Taleb was certainly getting the better of the Brazilian on the feet. However, when the fight got to the ground, it was a very different story. A rear-naked choke shortly before the end of the first round put Silva in the winner’s circle, and earned him a Performance bonus as well.
Arnold Allen also got in the win column thanks to a comeback via submission, in his case in the third. After being controlled for the better part of the fight by Mads Burnell, the featherweight locked in a Hail Mary front choke to seal the deal.
Performances of the Night
Breese | Silva | @ArnoldBFA | @Darren_MMA
💰 50G's 💰 pic.twitter.com/MWUEKxjQeJ
— UFC (@ufc) May 27, 2018
Also picking up Performance of the Night honors at UFC Liverpool were Tom Breese and Darren Stewart. Breese made short work of Dan Kelly, finishing the Dad Bod icon by TKO early in the first round of their middleweight scrap. In another middleweight battle, Stewart finished off Eric Spicely early in the second round, also by TKO.
All four men will receive $50,000 U.S. for their efforts on Sunday.
