Stipe Miocic, Alistair Overeem, Jessica Andrade and Yancy Medeiros each brought home an additional $50,000 fight-night bonus check for their performances at UFC 203 Saturday night in Cleveland.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT
Miocic and Overeem were awarded “Fight of the Night” honors for their Heavyweight Championship main event. The bout marked Stipe’s first title defense since taking the belt from Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198 in May and he was in front of his home crowd in Ohio against the former Strikeforce champ.
Cleveland is 100% behind Miocic who is also a full-time firefighter protecting his fellow Buckeyes. Miocic was dropped early in round one and was nearly submitted, but the Euclid native was able to regain his composure, got back to his feet and put ‘the Reem’ on his heels in the standup. Eventually Miocic scored a takedown and postured up with big punches that knocked Overeem out with just 33-seconds to go in the opening frame.
PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGHT #1
Andrade scored her second straight finish at strawweight with a first round guillotine choke submission of Scotland’s Joanne Calderwood. Andrade scored early with a couple of big slams and then dominated on the ground with top control and heavy strikes. This eventually set up a scramble that saw Andrade hop on a choke for the tap. Their bout opened the pay-per-view card.
PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGHT #2
In the only preliminary card fight to air on Fight Pass, Medeiros earned his performance bonus with a second round submission of Sean Spencer. The bout marked Medeiros’s debut at welterweight and he kept a high pace against Spencer in a pretty even first round. In round two Medeiros hurt Spencer with a high kick then jumped on his back for the rear-naked choke finish at the 49-second mark.
