What is everyone’s rush?
UFC 180 rattled through the fight card tonight in what must have been record-breaking fashion as four of its five billings were ended with no-nonsense first round finishes. It actually took until the main event for a second horn to toot in any of the fights but Fabricio Werdum and Mark Hunt’s prolonged grapple – we say prolonged, it was finished in two rounds – was worth the wait.
In the first of the bouts, Hector Urbina impressed in front of his home crowd in his first UFC fight with a fine victory over the returning Edgar Garcia, back for the first time since 2009. Urbina choked Garcia on the cage and gave his compatriot no chance of a response as the older of the two was forced to tap out quickly.
Augusto Montano went crazy in the second fight. A combo of about 217 knees (approximately) to Chris Heatherly’s body gave the referee no choice but to intervene.
Ricardo Lamas pushed himself further up the chain again with a classy wrap-up of Denis Bermudez’s left arm.
Kelvin Gastelum threatened to steal the show though when he reversed a Jake Ellenberger take-down with a lightning scramble and a tight choke, forcing the tap out again in the first round.
Then, we got our new interim heavyweight champion when Fabricio Werdum turned the tables in the second round with a vicious knee to Mark Hunt’s face followed up by a hammering of the New Zealand man’s head as he lay strewn on the ground. Werdum lost the first round and was in more bother in the second when Hunt knocked him down again but a frantic 10 seconds were all that the Brazilian needed to end the fight and take home the belt.
