Sometimes, all it takes is a perfectly timed knee to the face to turn around the momentum of a sporting event.
Fabricio Werdum did just that after he weathered an early storm from Mark Hunt in the initial round of the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship fight at UFC 180 on Saturday in Mexico City. Werdum won by technical knockout in the second round. He certainly had to work for his victory, but a beautifully placed flying knee to Hunt’s chin completely flipped the script on the match.
Hunt actually landed a number of forceful punches on Werdum in the first round and dictated the tempo in the early going.
However, Hunt’s initial momentum proved futile in the second round when Werdum sent the challenger to the mat with that previously mentioned knee to the chin. The Brazilian wasted no time after that and pounced on the opportunity by unleashing a series of punches and shots on the ground until the referee stopped the fight.
It was an incredible turnaround considering how impressive Hunt looked in the opening few minutes.
Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com summarized the action accordingly:
Hunt landed nine significant strikes in Round 1 compared to Werdum’s eight, per UFC.com, but Werdum took control in the second round. The eventual victor ended up with 13 significant strikes in the second round compared to Hunt’s one.
Werdum discussed the win after the match, via Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie.com: “This belt is for my daughters and my wife and my family and my team. He punched me very hard, but I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
While Werdum did walk away with the all-important victory, the 40-year-old Hunt did more than just hold his own. He put a scare in the significant favorite and belonged in that cage right alongside Werdum.
It was even more impressive considering Hunt only had a few weeks to prepare for the high altitude of Mexico City because he was a late fill-in for Cain Velasquez. Unfortunately for the veteran Hunt, that may have represented his final opportunity on one of the sport’s bigger stages, given his age.
As for Werdum, the win gave him his fifth straight victory and seemingly set up a showdown with Velasquez. Still, that is assuming that Velasquez comes back 100 percent back from injury, which is a major assumption at this point.
He will have until March of 2015 to fully recover.
Ideally, for fans of the sport and competition as a whole, Velasquez will return to 100 percent quickly because a clash between him and Werdum would be must-see television for UFC supporters.
For now, though, Werdum will enjoy his hard-fought interim UFC Heavyweight Championship.
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