UFC Chile post-fight bonuses: Gabriel Benitez scores fast knockout finish for POTN honors

The Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile, was home to an exciting night of fights, at least until the main event, with four (T)KOs, two submissions, and seven decisions, including one split-decision.

The event had its share of pull-outs, with Volkan Oezdemir, Ray Borg, Shogun Rua and Santiago Ponzinibbio all scheduled to fight, but forced to pull out for one reason or another. Despite that, the event was fun, even if the main event left a lot to be desired.

Performances of the Night:

Gabriel Benitez only needed 39 seconds to slam Humberto Bandenay into the blissful arms of the sandman. Benitez dropped Bandenay with the first combo he threw; Humberto recovered, grabbed an armbar, then got Hulk-smashed into the canvas. The ref didn’t even manage to stop it before Benitez landed two more punches to the motionless shell that used to contain Bandenay’s soul. The UFC Paid Benitez an extra $50K for not straight up killing a man on live TV.

Claudio Puelles and Felipe Silva had a close, back-and-forth fight for a solid 12-and-a-half minutes before the kneebar Puelles had been searching for the entire fight finally came to fruition for him. Silva, perhaps overconfident in his ability to escape the hold after doing so earlier in the fight, over-committed in his attempts to finish a hurt Puelles and paid for it by having his knee hyper-extended. Puelles got $50,000 for bending Silva’s leg in ways legs aren’t meant to bend.

Fight of the Night:

Andrea Lee made her long-awaited UFC debut against Veronica Macedo and won a comfortable decision. The fight of the night award is a weird one, since the fight itself had long periods of downtime where Macedo would lie on her back as Lee kicked her legs and the crowd booed. Oh well, Endeavor likes what Endeavor likes, and apparently, they liked this fight. Both women got an extra 50,000 smackers for their efforts.

Attendance: 11,082 (sellout)