Joshua Van and Brandon Royval made sure their names won’t be forgotten in the aftermath of UFC 317.
The flyweight contenders threw down for three rounds and gave the fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas a new front runner for Fight of the Year. Van came out on the winning end of a unanimous decision, but both men head home with $50,000 bonus checks after winning Saturday’s Fight of the Night award.
Performance of the Night bonuses went to Ilia Topuria and Gregory Rodrigues, who both scored memorable knockouts.
Topuria’s KO will go down in history as he needed less than half a round to floor future Hall of Famer Charles Oliveira and claim a vacant lightweight title. That’s now three straight title fight wins for Topuria (he also knocked out Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in featherweight title bouts) to cap off a flawless 9-0 start to his UFC career.
As for Rodrigues, he sent a chill through the arena on the final preliminary bout of the card with a thudding knockout of fellow middleweight veteran Jack Hermansson. A powerful Rodrigues punch knocked Hermansson stiff and “Robocop” now collects his fifth UFC post-fight bonus.
