In recent years, the UFC brass have been handing out monetary awards to selected fighters after every event, for the best performances of the night.  The awards include ‘Knockout of the Night’ and ‘Submission of the Night’ for the most impressive stoppages, and ‘Fight of the Night’ awarded to both participants of the most exciting bout.

Not every bonus gets awarded at each event – there have been a few UFC cards where no fights ended in a submission – and at times multiple fighters receive each award.  For example, the ‘Fight of the Night’ honors have been shared among up to three bouts in a single event.  On occasion, a lucky fighter has been rewarded with both a Fight of the Night and a Submission or Knockout of the Night in the same fight.

While these awards are arbitrary and fans often disagree with who should have received the bonuses after each event, the fighters with a large number of bonuses under their belt gain the reputation of being the most exciting athletes in the UFC.  Our newest contributor and long-time reader Craig compiled a list of fighters who achieved the most bonuses in each category.  As with the rest of our UFC Records section, we’ve set out to publish a Top 10 in each category, but the actual numbers vary because of ties.  So read on, before you grab a package of sports beans and head to the gym to work off the inspiration:

Fights of the Night

Always the fan favorite, the recently retired Chris Lytle sits atop of this list with 6 Fights of the Night.   An interesting observation: 9 out of 12 fighters with 4 or more Fights of the Night have competed as lightweights in the UFC (though a few of them have ventured into other divisions as well).

Submissions of the Night

A couple of Ultimate Fighter 5 alumni, Joe Lauzon and Nate Diaz lead the way with 6 and 5 Submissions of the Night respectively.   Not far behind is the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard Demian Maia, and a name that might surprise some of our readers: Terri Etim.  Maia and Etim hold 4 submission bonuses each.

Knockouts of the Night

This is a very short list at the moment, as only six fighters have earned more than 2 total Knockout of the Night bonuses.  Not surprisingly Anderson Silva not only holds the record in this category, but also has twice as many KO awards as any other UFC fighter.

Overall ‘of the Night’ Bonuses

Total bonuses received by each fighter, in any category.  Anyone with 5 or more is included, and Anderson Silva shares the top honors with Joe Lauzon with 11 total awards.

About a year ago, I posted the first update to my original post.

I feel the need to keep revisiting this as we get more data, because every few months I see this topic bubble up to the top of various sites and forums.

In summary, we started tracking weigh-in weights, and I wanted to see if the heavier fighters won more often than lighter fighters.  Using the same ideals as before, with an even larger data set:

• In 778 non-draw official fights where both fighters weighed in at different weights, but above 210 (our Light Heavyweight limit), 390 were won by the lighter fighter, and 388 won by the heavier fighter (49.9%).
• When you allow for mismatches and include matches in which only one fighter had to weigh above 210, the total tally increases to 946 and the gap widens, with the heavier fighter only winning 455 (48.1%).
• For the record, across the board, the heavier fighter has won 52.5% of the time.

The results are nearly identical as before, though the heavier fighter (again) gained ground in all three statistics.  There are a few possibilities to explain this and it could be a combination of:

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