UFC heavyweight, Ante Delija will make the quick turnaround on November 1st against 6th ranked UFC heavyweight Waldo Cortes-Acosta in a UFC Apex Fight Night Co-Main Event. Delija beat 7th ranked Marcin Tybura in the beginning of September with a 1st round knockout that earned him a Performance of the Night bonus in the his UFC debut.
This gives Delija a quick 2-month turnaround and a chance to climb up the rankings by fighting Waldo Cortes-Acosta who is one of the UFC’s biggest prospects in the heavyweight division. With slim pickings for talent currently in the UFC heavyweight division, Delija’s desire for activity in the division will give him a big chance to climb closer to the coveted opportunity of a UFC title fight. His rise in the UFC marks the first real Croatian contender in both the heavyweight division and the UFC as a whole since the legendary Stipe Miocic run that cemented him as the heavyweight “GOAT”. Despite taking minimal damage, Delija’s quick turnaround and dangerous opponent marks his first true test in the UFC. Should he emerge as the winner, he would earn the status of title contender and put himself on the map for MMA fans across the world. As for his opponent, the 14-2 Waldo Cortes-Acosta is coming off his second only loss ever in what was a potential number one contender bout with 3rd ranked Sergei Pavlovich. Despite being held behind closed doors in the UFC Apex, Delija’s ability to land himself a co-main event after just one UFC appearance showcases how serious of a contender the UFC views him as.
P.S. quick turnaround for Waldo too – he fought a month ago vs. Pavlovich – the fight went 3 rounds and to the cards – but Waldo ate some serious punches in the fight – here are the highlights (he seems to have a “weak nose” as he kept nervously touching it all fight (like a tick) and by the end it was bloody)
***.facebook.com/Eurosport/videos/ufc-fight-night-shanghai-sergei-pavlovich-defeats-waldo-cortes-acosta/786447903842124/
Delija could beat Waldo.
Pavlovich looks good though. He’d be the much tougher fight.
Thank you Andrew R. for the article (Ante – is Andrew R. a new contributor ?)
Anonymous never heard of UFC Apex so spent 5 min investigating
Couple of points:
– The Octagon is 25-feet wide (vs. 30-feet wide) – never heard of Waldo before (or watched him fight) – but given Aspinall has been training Delije and the last fight we saw his “fast hands” presumably it’s an advantage for Delije to be in the smaller Octagon ?
– The Apex was “Closed Doors” during Covid – the fights there now have a limited crowd (c.1,000 per Wikipedia) – here’s highlights from the last UFC Apex – there are folks in the crowd – so I’m sure some determined and resourceful Croatians should be able to stumble their way into tickets and show up with Croatian jerseys and flags ?
***.youtube.com/watch?v=iPV2nVVGTQ8
The one issue in Delije’s path to the HW title – given his current training partner / mentor is Aspinall – and Aspinall is current HW Champion – doubt they will want to fight each other – but fret not, Aspinall is fighting Gane Oct 25th – so if the story-line ends up being Aspinall loses the week before and Delije wins his fight – we’ll know why