The UFC Encyclopedia Awards are four separate unofficial award categories based on selections from UFC/Zuffa LLC editorial director and senior editor of UFC.com Thomas Gerbasi, who also compiles the UFC.com Half-Year and Year-End Awards. The hand-picked "unofficial" performance awards, published in Gerbasi's 400-page official UFC book entitled "UFC Encyclopedia - The Definitive Guide to the Ultimate Fighting Championship" in October 2011, were for events prior to the introduction of the UFC Bonus Awards in January 2006.[1][2]
The first documented UFC Bonus Awards event, where fighters received official cash bonuses, was on January 16, 2006 at Ultimate Fight Night 3.[3][4] Gerbasi's book reviewed 63 events prior to that date as well as subsequent events that did not have bonuses, and noted the "unofficial" awards including the official UFC Bonus Awards. The following categories were documented:
Note: Due to multiple bouts from a fighter in one event, opponent information ("def.") is only included for the early UFC events that had tournaments
Note 2: At Ultimate Fight Night 3, the first Fight of the Night award was officially given. From that event up until the final event with unofficial awards at The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale, unless specifically noted as "unofficial", all other bonuses listed are official, matching the ones on the Bonus Awards page.
This list includes recipients with six or more awards.
Fighter | Fight of the Night |
Knockout of the Night |
Submission of the Night |
Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tito Ortiz | 8 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
Chuck Liddell | 7 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
Randy Couture | 8 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
Royce Gracie | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
Evan Tanner | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
Vitor Belfort | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
Matt Hughes | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
Frank Mir | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |