OAKLAND, Calif. – Stefan Struve, Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen and Matt Hughes each earned $60,000 fight-night bonuses for their performances at tonight’s UFC 117 event.

Struve earned the “Knockout of the Night” award, Silva and Hughes picked up “Submission of the Night” bonuses, and Silva and Sonnen earned “Fight of the Night” honors.

Silva doubled-up, winning both a “Submission of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” bonus totaling a payout of $120,000 in extra pay for the reigning UFC middleweight champion.

Silva earned his two awards by coming back from near defeat to submit Chael Sonnen after being pounded for four-and-a-half rounds by the challenger. With less than three minutes to go in the five round title fight, Silva quickly transitioned to a fight ending triangle choke that saved his belt, and extended his successful title defense streak to a record seventh straight.

Struve, earned his “Knockout of the Night” bonus on the preliminary-card bout that was shown on the PPV, by surviving an early beatdown by UFC newcomer Christian Morecraft.

Struve survived the first, and in the second stanza, sporting a huge busted lip, stood toe to toe and dropped Morecraft with a three punch combo during a big exchange, then finished him up on the ground forcing the referee to step in and stop the bout.

UFC legend Matt Hughes earned his “Submission of the Night” award after putting Ricardo Almeida to sleep with a modified front headlock/arm-triangle choke in the first round of their UFC welterweight bout.

Hughes set up the submission with a left hook that dropped Almeida, then locked up the fight ending choke from the north-south position with the headlock. Almeida had little time to tap, as he found himself completely unconscious within seconds.

4 thoughts on “UFC 117 fight-night bonuses: $60k to Struve, Silva, Sonnen, and Hughes”
  1. silva should not have got any money for fight of the night! chael put on the fight of the night, not silva! he could do crap with chael on him… silva could have got some money for luckiest person of the night, or punching bag of the night! if anybody can find the exact regs on a tap out, like how many times you must tap or something along those lines please let me know…

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