UFC Seattle marked the promotion’s first trip to the Washington state city in over a decade, and came out of the gate hot with seven straight finishes — the entirety of the preliminary card.
That pace didn’t hold up by the time the main card rolled around, but a couple of those fights were highly entertaining, including Rob Font vs. Jean Matsumoto, where Font displayed his ample standup skills, and Brendan Allen vs. Anthony Hernandez in the co-headliner, a grappling fan’s dream.
It was light heavyweights Alonzo Menifield and Julius Walker (the latter making his UFC debut on short notice) that drew Fight of the Night honors at UFC Seattle, however. UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the bonus-winners during the night’s post-fight press conference, as well as an attendance of 18,287 at the Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.
Performance of the Night bonuses went to Jean Silva and Ricky Simon, both of whom scored thunderous knockout victories. Simon, known as much for his wrestling as his hands, absolutely floored Javid Basharat on the preliminary card. Silva did the same to Melsik Baghdasaryan, and might have had a walk-off KO had the referee not insisted the fight continue, somewhat needlessly, as the fallen fighter covered up on the ground. Silva obliged, and added ground n’ pound that felt wholly unnecessary until the ref waved things off, giving him a TKO finish.
All four bonus-winners come away from UFC Seattle with an extra $50,000. Four of five main-card fights wound up going the distance for eight finishes overall on the night.
