The UFC’s return to Chicago produced several incredible highlights on Saturday night.
Khamzat Chimaev was completely dominant against Dricus du Plessis in the main event, remaining undefeated to become the middleweight champion.
While ‘Borz’ earned a performance bonus for his win, the other awards went to some devastating knockouts from other fighters.
Lerone Murphy knocked out Aaron Pico in the first round to likely emerge as the next featherweight title challenger.
Remarkably, ‘The Miracle’ wasn’t the only man to produce a spinning elbow finish, with two of them happening in back-to-back fights.
Dana White provides an update on Aaron Pico and Geoff Neal following their UFC 319 losses
During his post-fight press conference after UFC 319, Dana White provided medical updates on two fighters that suffered huge knockout losses.
Aaron Pico’s UFC debut didn’t go to plan after the former Bellator star was stopped by Lerone Murphy in style.
Murphy quickly attracted the attention of Alexander Volkanovski by answering some of the previous criticisms that he has faced after recording dominant wins.
Another one of the most impressive performances in Chicago came from Carlos Prates, who also won his fight with a spinning elbow.
‘The Nightmare’ produced his most impressive win to date by finishing Geoff Neal in the first round.
After both Pico and Neal were on the wrong end of two scary losses, White issued the following news on their statuses.
“Pico was transferred and I haven’t heard anything about Geoff, I think he’s okay. But Pico, I’m no doctor, but I’m going to say he has a concussion for sure. But, we haven’t heard anything back that anything bad is happening. He’s getting checked for his head and face.”
Dana White doesn’t intend to change the way that the UFC gives out bonuses
There wasn’t too much debate regarding which UFC 319 fighters should have received the post-fight bonuses for their performance.
Following the news of the UFC’s new broadcast deal, Dana White was asked during the post-fight press conference about whether he’d ever look to change the bonus format.
Some have argued that fighters should instantly receive a bonus for producing a finish, rather than only a handful of additional cheques being handed out.
White made the case for why he intends to keep the system as it is.
“Finishes are part of it. I mean, when you think about it, other than Khamzat [Chimaev], the finishes were the other bonuses. I think you have to mix everything into the equation, a great performance. I don’t want to put myself in a box with just finishes.”
