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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC 189 was one of the best fight cards in the history of the organization, with each of the main six fights living up to or exceeding expectations. With that, the UFC had plenty of options to go with in their post-fight press conferences, but the choices they made were still clearly the correct ones.
Conor McGregor, Thomas Almeida, Robbie Lawler, and Rory MacDonald each earned an extra $50K, but should arguably be lobbying for more given their efforts on Saturday night.
McGregor and Almeida each won bonuses for "Performance of the Night," McGregor for his main event victory, and Almeida for a thrilling victory in the opening bout of the pay-per-view card. McGregor backed up his pre-fight comments, got himself taken down, but wore Chad Mendes out before stopping him in a thrilling final exchange at the end of the second round. As for Almeida, the undefeated 23-year-old faced legitimate adversity for the first time in his career, getting hurt badly by Brad Pickett in the first round before coming back strong, and scoring a sick flying knee KO in the second.
As for Lawler and MacDonald, they earned the bonus for "Fight of the Night" in what is likely to be a leading candidate for "Fight of the Year." Following a slow start to the fight, Lawler busted MacDonald up badly in the second round, only to see the challenger come back strong and hurt him in the third. A contested fourth round ultimately had MacDonald up three rounds to one on all three judges' scorecards into the final frame. That made the end result all the more fascinating, as Lawler kept targeting MacDonald's face, and forced him to crumble due to the damage done. The fifth round finish gave him an official title defense, and he'll move forward to his next challenge once he heals up from the damage he himself suffered in the fight.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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