TRISTEN CRITCHFIELD
Benoit St. Denis and Thiago Moises received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their entertaining lightweight clash at UFC Fight Night 226.
After a frenetic opening stanza that saw St. Denis open a cut near his foe’s eye with an elbow, the Frenchman delighted the crowd at Accor Arena in Paris by punctuating his victory with a barrage of ground-and-pound for a stoppage at the 4:44 mark of the second frame.
Meanwhile, former interim heavyweight king Ciryl Gane captured a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award for his technical knockout victory over Sergey Spivak in the main event. “Bon Gamin” kept the fight upright, and battered his foe with strikes to all levels before putting Spivak away with a salvo of punches to the head and body 3:44 into Round 2.
Finally, Morgan Charriere garnered the card’s other $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his finish of Manolo Zecchini in a featured featherweight affair. A series of kicks to the body sent Zecchini crumbling to the canvas, and Charriere landed a couple follow-up blows to seal his win 3:51 into Round 1.
