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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Four fighters earned $10,000 bonuses for their efforts on Thursday's WEC 52 event from the Pearl at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Main card fighters Urijah Faber and Erik Koch as well as preliminary card fighters Cub Swanson and Mackens Semerzier were the beneficiaries on Thursday.
Faber took home the "Submission of the Night" for his first round defeat of Takeya Mizugaki in the night's main event. Faber's rear naked choke, which resulted in a scary moment as referee Josh Rosenthal was delayed in stopping the fight when Mizugaki went out cold, bested a number of exciting submission wins earlier in the night.
Koch took home the "Knockout of the Night" award after dropping Francisco Rivera with a head kick and following it up with punches.
"Fight of the Night" went to Swanson and Semerzier for their three round battle on the preliminary card, which was subsequently broadcast during the show on Thursday. Swanson took a split decision victory in the fight, which was an extremely entertaining back and forth affair.
The WEC comes to a close next month with WEC 53, as the organization merges with their big brother organization UFC in 2011.
Penick's Analysis: All of these fighters were deserving of the bonuses, but I wouldn't have been surprised to see multiple "Submission of the Night" bonuses handed out with Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious picking up impressive guillotine choke victories on the card. Still, the amount of these bonuses highlights what these lighter fighters are looking forward to as they enter the UFC, as even Fight Night events on Spike feature much higher bonuses than $10,000. Thursday was another great event from the WEC, and the consistently entertaining events will be missed with the merger, but these fights and fighters will make the UFC events better.
RELATED STORY: WEC 52 RESULTS: Urijah Faber chokes Takeya Mizugaki unconscious in the first round in Las Vegas: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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