Antonina Shevchenko and Lucie Pudilova took home fight of the Night at UFC Newark, while a record-setting flyweight submission earned one of two Performance bonuses.
For a card that wasn’t expected to be much, UFC Newark had a few pleasant surprises. The return to form of Jim Miller. The continued success of Claudio Silva. And a downright fun affair between Antonina Shevchenko and Lucie Pudilova.
The latter earned Fight of the Night honors, UFC officials announced following Saturday’s card. The fight did not go the distance, but Pudilova showed incredible heart during the affair, escaping a nasty looking arm-bar before finally being choked unconscious by the older Shevchenko sister.
The rear-naked choke finish was one of three instances that saw fighters go out on Saturday. Technical submissions aren’t all that uncommon, but three in a night is nearly unheard of. Ref Herb Dean, however, took a bit of heat for being slow on the call at least once or twice.
Nasrat Haqparast, meanwhile, earned one of the two Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC Newark. That came for his thunderous knockout of Joaquim Silva early in the second round of their main card scrap. The other Performance of the Night award went to flyweight Matt Schnell, who became the first fighter in the UFC’s 125lb weight class to obtain a finish via triangle.
All four bonus-winning fighters will earn $50,000 for their efforts. Per promotion officials, 10,427 fans turned up for the event, resulting in a gate of $687,778.
