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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Four fighters are an extra $70,000 richer after their performances at UFC 128 in New Jersey on Saturday night, as UFC President Dana White announced at the press conference that Erik Koch, Brendan Schaub, Edson Barboza and Anthony Njokuani each earned "Fight Night" bonuses for their efforts.
With no submission wins coming on the card, the UFC opted to give out two "Knockout of the Night" awards, with Erik Koch and Brendan Schaub each benefitting from that decision.
Koch earned his with a first round knockout of Raphael Assuncao. After looking to avoid Assuncao's early aggression in the opening bout of the night's event, Koch landed a perfectly timed counter punch as Assuncao rushed in and dropped him. Assuncao was out cold and Koch picked up the win in his UFC debut.
Schaub's bonus came from his third round knockout of Mirko Cro Cop on the pay-per-view card. Cro Cop gave a good showing through two rounds, but Schaub out of nowhere in the third connected on a shot to the temple as Cro Cop was looking to throw a big punch himself, and Cro Cop crashed to the mat hard. Schaub landed one unnecessary strike before referee Herb Dean could step in.
The "Fight of the Night" went to the Spike TV prelim between Barboza and Njokuani. The highly entertaining striking bout saw Barboza earn the decision victory. Njokuani, a longtime veteran of the WEC, made it a fight with some fast hands and good striking early, but Barboza connected on the harder and cleaner strikes throughout the fight. Just for good measure as well, he landed a spinning kick to the face at the final horn that had Njokuani stumbled. But Njokuani survived, and both fighters were rewarded for a great effort.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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