Fabricio Werdum went toe-to-toe with Mark Hunt tonight in the main event of UFC 180 and despite being knocked down himself a few times, he rallied to TKO him in the second to become the UFC’s new interim heavyweight champion.
Round One:
The main event of the evening is underway. Werdum lands a solid low leg kick to start. Hunt lands one of his own.
Hunt taps Werdum’s chin with a punch. Right hand for Hunt sends Werdum to the mat. Werdum seems ok though and gets back to his feet. Hunt presses forward looking to land that right hand again, but Werdum backs away.
Werdum goes for a very low takedown attempt, but Hunt steps away from danger. Hunt just misses with a couple of hard punches.
Werdum with a spinning kick and it glances Hunt’s face. He lands a kick. Wow, Hunt goes for a takedown and lands it. Doesn’t seem like a great gameplan from Hunt against Werdum’s very dangerous guard. Still, Hunt is persevering in Werdum’s full guard with the Brazilian slightly caught up against the cage.
Hunt trying to land a few punches, but Werdum is mostly tying him up. Approaching a minute to go in the opening round. Hunt stacks up and then manages to move away and they go back to the stand-up.
Mid-kick for Werdum. He lands one to the leg too. Werdum looking to clinch up, but Hunt blasts him with an uppercut.
Werdum definitely felt that and he eats a left hand too. Werdum lands a kick as the round comes to a close.
Round Two:
Werdum with a front kick to the body. Body kick lands for Werdum as Hunt wings big blows just past his head. Werdum eats a punch and gets dropped. Again he’s ok though and stands back up. That’s got to be a big concern for him though.
Werdum ducks a big winging punch from Hunt. He misses with a head kick. Spinning kick for Werdum, but Hunt pushes him down again.
Werdum back up looking no worse the wear, but you can see the hesitancy in his stand-up game compared to his other recent fights.
Suddenly Werdum throws a huge knee up the middle and Hunt seems to duck into it which only adds to the impact which drops him hard.
Werdum follows him down and starts hammering down blows to the still dazed Hunt’s head. Hunt looks on the verge of being KO’d here! The blows keep coming and Hunt’s not defending himself so this fight is over – Werdum wins by TKO at 2.27mins of the second round to become the UFC’s new interim heavyweight champion.
