TUF 16 Finale Fighters Bonuses: Pat Barry's Thunder Scores Knockout of the Night Bonus
Colton Smith may have won the sixteenth edition of The Ultimate Fighter at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday night, but his efforts didn’t put him amongst the TUF 16 Finale fighter bonus winners.
Each of the post-fight award winners was awarded $40,000 for the distinction with Pat Barry leading the way.
Although Barry was in trouble early in his fight with Shane Del Rosario, who rocked Barry early with some solid striking and really put him in trouble with a couple submission attempts in the first round, Barry rebounded well in the second stanza.
He hurt Del Rosario with a left hand, noticed the wobbly legs, and swarmed his prey. Barry crumpled Del Rosario to the canvas via a thundering right hand, followed him down and finished him off for the TUF 16 Finale Knockout of the Night honors.
TJ Waldburger had one mission against Nick Catone on Saturday night: get the finish. And that he hid. Waldburger was relentless looking for submissions, and although it took him into round two to do it, Waldburger missed with a guillotine, but transitioned to a triangle choke for the finish and the Submission of the Night.
Like Waldbruger, the Fight of the Night honors went to a preliminary bout, which was actually the first fight on the entire card.
Tim Elliot received an illegal knee in the opening round and looked questionable to continue, but the referee allowed him to go on. It proved to be a good decision as Elliot took the fight to Jared Papazian, trying mightily to finish him, but Papazian just wouldn't go away. He was dominated, but he wouldn't quit.
Elliot fighting back from the brink of not being able to continue, and Papazian fighting just to stave off a finish once Elliot caught fire, earned the two the TUF 16 Finale Fight of the Night honors, each of them scoring a $40,000 bonus check.
Stay tuned to MMAWeekly.com for all of your TUF 16 Finale news and fight coverage.
