Big Nog, Barboza And Pearson Take Home Fight Night Bonuses

The Brazilians came to put on a show tonight in Rio de Janeiro for UFC 134 and two of them took home fight night bonuses worth $100,000 each for their efforts.

Apparently forgetting that Brazilian jiu-jitsu is supposed to be their bread and butter, no submissions were scored tonight -- few were attempted -- so, no bonus for Submission of the Night was handed out.

Coming back from a loss and more than a yearlong, injury-induced layoff, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defied the predictions of many by scoring an impressive first round knockout over highly regarded young prospect Brendan Schaub. Bolstered by the hyper-supportive hometown crowd, Big Nog made it clear that rushing through his rehab had little ill effect on his in-cage performance. He walked through some hard counter shots delivered by the young gun to fire off his own, eventually tagging The Hybrid with a hard right hand that sent him reeling slowly to the mat. The fight was ended in just the first round, giving Big Nog one of the biggest wins of his legendary career.

Likely fired up by his hero's unexpected victory and also the hometown crowd, Brazilian Edson Barboza took home a hard-fought split decision victory over fellow UFC lightweight Ross Pearson that earned both men Fight of the Night bonuses.

UFC 134 went down at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the promotion's reception will no doubt prompt more frequent trips to the country.