WEC
WEC 47 BONUSES: Pettis, Benavidez, Roop and Garcia take home an extra $10K for their performances at WEC 47
Mar 7, 2010 - 10:19:14 AM WEC 47 BONUSES: Pettis, Benavidez, Roop and Garcia take home an extra $10K for their performances at WEC 47

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

After an action packed WEC 47 event that saw two brutal knockouts, five submissions and just an overall night of great MMA action, WEC officials had plenty to choose from when it came time to hand out the night's "Fight Night" bonuses. The three bonuses went to Anthony Pettis, Joseph Benavidez, and George Roop and Leonard Garcia for their "Fight of the Night".

Pettis earned his "Knockout of the Night" with a spectacular head kick KO of Danny Castillo that knocked Castillo out cold before he hit the mat. Pettis was allowed to add further punishment before the ref could stop him, but the head kick was what put the very tough Castillo out, giving him consecutive losses for the first time in his career. It was Pettis' second WEC victory and 8th overall. It was a successful rebound from his first career loss, a split decision to Bart Palazewski at WEC 45 in December.

Benavidez had some stiff competition for "Submission of the Night", but by bloodying and submitting former Bantamweight Champion Miguel Torres in the night's co-main event, he earned the nod. It was unfortunate for Scott Jorgensen that his beautiful ten finger guillotine choke, that literally saw him lift Chad George up off his feet and into the cage, came on a card with Benavidez's win, as it would have been a lock for the bonus at nearly any other event. For Benavidez, however, the sickening guillotine choke that saw blood pouring out of Torres' head was more than enough to be a deserving winner of the bonus.

The night's "Fight of the Night" didn't make it to the Versus broadcast, as it was one of only three fights that made it to the judges scorecards. Unfortunately, the bout did not see a clear winner, as an illegal blow in the third saw a point taken from Roop due to a low blow and led to a split draw. The fight was extremely close, with one judge seeing the bout 29-27 for Roop, one 29-27 for Garcia and finally a 28-28 from the final judge to declare the draw.

It was yet another very good event from the WEC on Versus, despite an unfortunate ending in the night's main event and a less than exciting stalemate between Deividas Taurosevicius and LC Davis that resulted in a majority decision. Still, it was a good foot forward as the WEC makes the leap to pay-per-view with their next event coming next month.