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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
T.J. Dillashaw's huge night at UFC 173 was made even better with a cool $100,000 in bonus money, as Dana White announced at the post-fight press conference that the new UFC Bantamweight Champion had earned one of the night's performance bonuses, along with the "Fight of the Night" award with Renan Barao.
Dillashaw stopped Barao in a thrilling and absolutely unforgettable performance, controlling Barao with a shockingly superior striking game en route to a fifth round TKO win. The Team Alpha Male product pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC Title history, and his extra "Performance of the Night" bonus was well deserved.
On a packed and action-filled event, the UFC had plenty of options for the final "Performance of the Night" award, including Daniel Cormier and Robbie Lawler in their dominant third round stoppage wins, or Tony Ferguson demolishing Katsunori Kikuno, but they went with lightweight Mitch Clarke for his comeback win over Al Iaquinta.
Clarke was nearly stopped in the first round, with Iaquinta doing enough offensively to warrant a 10-8 round in that opening frame. In the second, though, after getting taken down, Clarke pulled off a fantastic transition into a D'Arce choke, rolled with Iaquinta as he tried to escape, and put him out cold.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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