UFC
UFC 117 BONUSES: Anderson Silva earns two $60K bonuses, two "Submission of the Night" bonuses handed out
Aug 8, 2010 - 1:10:02 PM UFC 117 BONUSES: Anderson Silva earns two $60K bonuses, two "Submission of the Night" bonuses handed out

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

After yet another "Card of the Year" event from the UFC on Saturday night in Oakland with UFC 117, the organization handed out five $60,000 "Fight Night" bonuses to four different fighters for their efforts.

Anderson Silva, still UFC Middleweight Champion despite a massively impressive fight out of challenger Chael Sonnen, doubled down on bonus money as he earned one of two "Submission of the Night" awards handed out as well as the "Fight of the Night" along with Sonnen. Matt Hughes took home the other "Submission of the Night," while Stefan Struve earned the night's "Knockout of the Night" on the preliminary card.

Silva survived a 22 minute beating from Sonnen in the night's main event, locking on a triangle and forcing the challenger to submit with less than two minutes remaining in the round. The $60,000 is nothing but a small consolation for Sonnen, but he successfully backed up every ounce of trash talking he spoke heading into Saturday's fight.

Hughes pulled off a previously unseen catch-wrestling style choke on Ricardo Almeida in the first round of their bout to not only earn a the special second bonus, but also prove he's far from done in the welterweight division. The former kingpin of the 170 lb. weight class may now be in the aging "Hall of Famer" category, but what he pulled off against Almeida with an awesome headlock choke in a sprawl position was spectacular, and proved he's still got plenty in the tank.

As for Struve, the 22 year old fighter, standing at 6'11", pulled off a come from behind victory of his own. Beaten, battered and bloodied by Christian Morecraft in the first round of their preliminary card bout, Struve came back in the second round and knocked Morecraft down in a brutally fast exchange that saw both fighters winging punches. Struve's right hand landed flush on the chin, and he followed up with fast and efficient punches on the ground to seal the victory that looked nearly out of reach in the first round.

It was yet another excellent card from the UFC, and brings up the anticipation of UFC 118 from later this month even more.

Penick's Analysis: There's plenty more to say about the main event, and we'll get to that later, but it was obviously the fight of the night. Hell, that was one of the single best examples of this sport at a high level I've ever seen, and any fan will be hard pressed to find too many examples of better fights than that. As for Hughes, I'm highly intrigued by the concept of a fight between him and Jake Shields in 2011, provided Shields gets past Martin Kampmann in October. After that submission I'm much more intrigued to see his next fight. As for Struve, the kid has plenty of holes in his game, but he hits really hard and has a submission game, and as he develops his skills as a fighter and hones in on what he does really well, he can still be a force in the heavyweight division. Just an amazing fight card on Saturday night, and the UFC continues to deliver.