UFC on FOX 7 bonuses: Brown, Mein, Romero, Thomson earn $50,000

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Matt Brown, Jordan Mein, Yoel Romero and Josh Thomson each earned $50,000 bonuses for their performances at Saturday’s UFC on FOX 7 event.

Brown and Mein picked up “Fight of the Night” honors, while Romero and Thomson each won for “Knockout of the Night.” Without a submission, there was no “Submission of the Night” bonus.

UFC President Dana White announced the winners at the night’s post-event news conference, which MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) attended.

UFC on FOX 7 took place at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. The main card aired on FOX following prelims on FX and Facebook.

Brown (17-11 MMA, 7-5 UFC) and Mein (27-9 MMA, 1-1 UFC) engaged in some serious fireworks for the first five minutes of the fight, which featured several momentum shifts. But in the second, Brown landed a pair of knees that had Mein on the canvas, and from there he unleashed with shots to the body that got the fight shut down.

Romero (5-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) had a sensational UFC debut with a flying-knee knockout of Clifford Starks (8-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) just 92 seconds into their card-opening middleweight fight. Romero was fighting for the first time since a September 2011 Strikeforce loss at light heavyweight, and the Olympic wrestler didn’t disappoint with a knee that immediately planted Starks on his back and several follow-up punches right afterward.

Thomson (20-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) slugged it out with Nate Diaz (16-9 MMA, 11-7 UFC) in his first fight in the UFC in roughly nine years. But in the second round, he landed a massive right kick to the head and followed it up with big shots that had Diaz’s corner throwing in the towel just as the fight was being stopped.

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 7, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

(Pictured: Jordan Mein)