Rather than making the difficult decision and awarding a single Fight of the Night bonus at UFC Vegas 108, the promotion opted to hand out two.
Yes, there were some worthy individual performances, including bantamweight prospect Austin Bashi and main event flyweight Tatsuro Taira both earning impressive submission wins. Still, Esteban Ribovics vs. Elves Brener and Chris Duncan vs. Mateusz Rebecki were both wildly entertaining fights, and neck-and-neck in terms of Fight of the Night potential. So why reward one when you can reward both?
Both fights went the distance, with Ribovics putting on another high-volume, dominant performance, though Brener was both tough enough, and talented enough, to make things closer than they might otherwise been. Then, in the co-main event, Scotland’s Duncan and Poland’s Rebecki, who happen to be teammates, put on an extremely bloody war, trading blows for the better part of fifteen minutes.
The UFC commentary team, albeit prone to hyperbole, were calling the bout a Fight of the Year candidate by the end. It might end up being a dark horse in that category, but it was without question one of the better UFC fights in recent weeks, or even months.
With two Fight of the Night bonuses awarded at UFC Vegas 108, no Performance of the Night was handed out. All four bonus-winners will pocket $50,000 U.S. as usual. With the card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, no gate was announced.
