Four men walked away from the UFC’s final event of 2012 with an extra $65,000, as Jim Miller, Joe Lauzon, Todd Duffee and John Moraga each pocketed post-fight bonuses at UFC 155.
Saturday night’s event took place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and was highlighted by a masterful performance by Cain Velasquez in the main event. The American Kickboxing Academy standout dominated Junior dos Santos to close the pay-per-view broadcast, taking a one-sided unanimous decision to recapture the UFC heavyweight title.
Miller and Lauzon also impressed in the co-headliner, with Miller badly lacerating the Massachusetts native with a series of standing elbow strikes in round one. Though Miller would consistently get the better of “J-Lau” throughout the violent three-round affair, Lauzon proved game, even threatening to finish the bout with a leglock after scoring a beautiful scissor takedown in the waning seconds of round three.
Duffee’s return to the Octagon was a dominant one, as the agile heavyweight quickly disposed of British grappler De Fries, taking his foe out in just 2:04. Duffee, 27, put De Fries on his heels in the bout’s opening moments with a series of hard rights and did not hesitate in his pursuit of the finish, sealing the deal with a final heavy uppercut that forced referee Yves Lavigne to step in and halt the bout.
Moraga earned his second consecutive Octagon win in his competitive bout with the highly-regarded Cariaso, battling tit-for-tat with his outsized foe for more than 10 minutes before locking up a crushing power guillotine that forced “Kamikaze” to tap out just 71 seconds into the final frame.