Forget a Fight of the Night - there were too many deserving individual performances at UFC Vegas 109 to award one of those.
Instead, four fighters picked up $50,000 U.S. Performance of the Night bonuses following a Fight Night event at the Apex that, if lacking in relevance outside of the main event, produced plenty of explosive moments.
The most explosive of those came when second-generation UFC star Elijah Smith, with proud pop Gilbert Smith in his corner, landed a Rampage Jackson-style slam knockout on Toshiomi Kazama in the opening round of their bantamweight fight. Rampage did that during his prime at 205lbs; seeing Smith hoist up his opponent and, at 135, still have the power to put him to sleep was impressive.
Technically, the follow-up strikes might have done that, but Kazama had been knocked senseless by the slam itself. Unfortunately the ref, probably caught as unaware as the rest of us given the rarity of slam KOs, was just a step slow in making the save.
Kazama was transported to hospital and released later in the evening, per the UFC Vegas 109 broadcast.
UFC Vegas 109 headliner Anthony "Fluffy" Hernandez was another Performance bonus winner on Saturday. After controlling Roman Dolidze and wearing him down for three rounds, he secured a rear-naked choke in the fourth to end the fight inside the distance. "Secure" is a word we're using loosely here, as Hernandez wasn't in position, and in fact was still standing and stepping backwards when an exhausted Dolidze tapped.
Christian Leroy Duncan, who finished Eryk Anders, and Joselyn Edwards, for her stoppage of Priscila Cachoeira, were the remaining two bonus-winners on Saturday.