NEW YORK – Rose Namajunas, T.J. Dillashaw and Georges St-Pierre each earned $50,000 bonuses for their performances at Saturday’s UFC 217 event, and Ovince Saint-Preux and Ricardo Ramos took home $25,000 bonuses.
No “Fight of the Night” award was given. Instead, all five fighters won “Performance of the Night” honors.
UFC President Dana White announced the winners following the event, which MMAjunkie attended.
St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) choked Michael Bisping (30-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) unconscious with a third-round rear-naked choke to capture the middleweight title. St-Pierre returned after a four-year layoff and became just the fourth two-division champion in UFC history.
Dillashaw (15-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) upset Cody Garbrandt (11-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) to win the bantamweight title with a second-round knockout. The two brought a major grudge into the fight since Dillashaw was a former Team Alpha Male member who left the camp.
Namajunas (7-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) upset Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) to win the women’s strawweight title as the biggest underdog on Saturday’s card. Namajunas stunned Jedrzejczyk in the first round and knocked her to the canvas, then pounded away till she got the finish.
Saint Preux (22-10 MMA, 10-5 UFC) struggled in the first 10 minutes against Corey Anderson (9-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC). But in the final round, “OSP” caught Anderson with a head kick to put him away. And Ramos (11-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) landed a wicked spinning elbow to knock out Aiemann Zahabi (7-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) in the night’s first fight.
UFC 217 took place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.
For complete coverage of UFC 217, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
[sigallery id=”t2pBbXqn6WUG8Z2WigLLpQ” title=”St-Pierre def. Bisping” type=”sigallery”]
