UFC 180 results: Fabricio Werdum knocks out Mark Hunt, continues run as heavyweight heartbreaker

Fabricio Werdum is the new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) interim heavyweight champion, following a sensational technical knockout win over Mark Hunt in the UFC 180 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, which took place last night (Sat., Nov. 15, 2014) in Mexico City.

It's okay to be mad.

Werdum has been breaking hearts for years. Longtime mixed martial arts (MMA) fans will remember "Vai Cavalo" bouncing Alistair Overeem in the opening round of the PRIDE Fighting Championship 2006 open weight grand prix, thanks to a nasty second-round submission.

Then came the tap heard 'round the world.

The Brazilian lured Fedor Emelianenko into his guard under the Strikeforce banner back in 2010, kicking off a string of dreadful performances for the "Last Emperor" and severing any hope of seeing the Russian smashing machine make his way to the Octagon.

Now this.

It wasn't outrageous to suggest that Hunt would have been submitted at UFC 180. After all, he was coming into their bout on short notice, thanks to an untimely injury to reigning division kingpin Cain Velasquez. Couple that with Werdum's credentials on the grappling circuit, and hey, at least the "Super Samoan" went out on his shield.

But losing by knockout?

To predict such a thing would have been heresy at the start of the five-fight main card, and yet here we are, still talking about Werdum's flying knee (see it), which dropped the stocky New Zealander and left him exposed to a blitzkrieg of Brazilian hammerfists.

The #rallyformarkhunt is over.

That's the bad news. The good news is, we can (finally) stop writing off Werdum, no matter how preposterous the scenario. Even after the smoke clears from the UFC 180 extravaganza, some fans and pundits will scoff at the idea of "Vai Cavalo" defeating Velasquez.

Even though he can submit the world's best grapplers, and knockout the world's best strikers.

That's assuming the champ doesn't get stripped of his title due to inactivity, something not outside the realm of possibility. If and when that time comes, there is no shortage of 265-pound contenders. And I can think of at least one match up Werdum is probably hoping to get.

His name is Junior dos Santos and he doesn't break hearts.

He breaks faces.

For more UFC 180 results, including our live play-by-play check out our "Werdum vs. Hunt" live story stream here.