UFC 149: Fighter Bonuses and Attendance, Gate sets record for venue
The attendance and post-fight bonuses have been announced for tonight’s UFC 149 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Canada. Bonuses of $65,000 each, were awarded for Submission of the Night to Matthew Riddle, Fight of the Night went to Bryan Caraway and Mitch Gagnon and the Knockout of the Night was awarded to Ryan Jimmo for his 7-second KO victory over Anthony Perosh. The total bonus payout for this event came to $260,000. These numbers do not represent any pay-per-view bonuses or victory bonuses.
UFC President Dana White gave the attendance as 16,089 at the post fight press conference and said that the attendance figure, “smashed the gate record” for the arena. The live gate was $4.1 million. White stated: “We shattered the record, I was excited when I heard, and now I’m embarrassed. The undercard delivered, and the main card did not.”
The $65,000 bonuses were issued as follows:
Knockout of the Night:
The Knockout of the Night Bonus went to Ryan Jimmo against Anthony Perosh in his UFC debut on the preliminary card. Jimmo caught Perosh with a strong right and followed up with a strike on the ground. Perosh was out by then, but Referee Josh Rosenthal was too not quick enough to stop it.
Fight of the Night:
The Fight of the Night bonus went to Bryan Caraway and Mitch Gagnon’ Bantamweight fight, also on the undercard. Although the first round belonged to Gagnon, Caraway broke out in the second and third. In the final round, Caraway defeated Gagnon via rear-naked choke.
Submission of the Night:
Matthew Riddle and Chris Clements fought a war in what was probably the best fight on the main card. Riddle did some damage to Clements early on, including a liver kick that could have finished Clements in the first round. Clements attempted a spinning back fist in the third round, which Riddle used against him by trapping him in a textbook example of a standing arm triangle choke and deftly sweeping Clements to the mat with the momentum and Riddle’s bodyweight enhancing the effectiveness, forcing Clements to tap out.
