Waldo Cortes-Acosta entered last weekend’s UFC Vegas 110 at the UFC Apex facility at No. 6 in the rankings at 265 lbs. If he was right on the cusp of the heavyweight championship conversation ahead of this weekend’s fights, he’s now firmly in the conversation.
It took some effort to get the win, but now that the dust has settled on Saturday night’s show at the UFC Apex, Cortes-Acosta’s victory is one he will remember for a long time. His opponent on Saturday night was number 9 Ante Delija.
It took some effort to get the win, but now that the dust has settled on Saturday night’s show at the UFC Apex, Cortes-Acosta’s victory is one he will remember for a long time. His opponent on Saturday night was number 9 Ante Delija.Everything you really need to know about the co-main event of the evening at UFC Vegas 110 on Saturday night is what happened across two series of events. Spoiler alert: Both Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Ante Delija brought the drama to the legendary Octagon at the UFC Apex on November’s opening night.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta loses by knockout… In short, in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 110
The co-main attraction of the evening at UFC Vegas 110 was scheduled for three rounds of five minutes each and Ante Delija planned to make sure this fight wouldn’t go past 15 minutes. At least that’s what it looked like initially.
At first, Ante Delija delivered a barrage of vicious, thunderous punches and it looked like the ninth-ranked heavyweight was winning the match. However, Delija, in his haste to end the fight, appeared to have taken an accidental poke in the eye from Waldo Cortes-Acosta as the sequence was reviewed by instant replay during the stoppage.
Per UFC protocol, in the event of an injury timeout, as was the case here, Cortes-Acosta was given five minutes of recovery time. After the injury timeout expired, the No. 6 heavyweight declared himself fit to continue.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta takes advantage of the injury timeout and storms back to win the co-main event
Upon the fight’s resumption, Cortes-Acosta left no doubt as to whether or not he would have enough energy in his gas tank to complete an astonishing comeback. He uncorked a vicious right-handed slam to put down Ante Delija. A flurry of ground and pound shots served as the exclamation point to this wild contest.
Although the match lasted three minutes and 59 seconds in the Octagon on Saturday night, the match between Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Ante Delija was one for the ages when you think about it.
This heavyweight battle had a little bit of everything, including a finish that no one could have seen coming when the fight started just before 9:00 PM ET on Saturday night. Fights in the heavyweight division are by nature designed to excite the fans.
Cortes-Acosta receives a well-deserved $50,000 advance at the post-fight press conference
During the UFC Vegas 110 post-fight press conference on Saturday night, it was revealed that Waldo Cortes-Acosta would be one of the winners to receive $50,000 (USD) in bonus money, with Cortes-Acosta’s bonus coming for the Performance of the Night Award.
After the fight, Waldo Cortes-Acosta spoke with UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier during the UFC Vegas 110 broadcast, discussing his reaction to the eye poke.
“I felt that finger indeed went into my eye,” Cortes-Acosta began. “The referee said we had to stop [the fight]but I decided to continue because I felt like I could continue. My eyes were like [at] 20 percent visibility. I said, “I don’t give a (censored).”
Cortes-Acosta used his airtime Saturday night to challenge Tom Aspinall to a fight. UFC Vegas 110 took place a week after Aspinall’s initial defense of the UFC Heavyweight Championship ended on a sour note.
A week ago at UFC 321 on Saturday, Aspinall himself suffered an eye poke from challenger Ciryl Gane during the evening’s main event, resulting in the title fight being declared a no-contest. Seven days later, another eye puncture took place in the cage. Unlike last week, Saturday evening produced a definitive winner.
Final thoughts
While Waldo Cortes-Acosta may or may not realize his desire to fight Tom Aspinall in a future bout, there is one certainty about his performance in the cage this weekend: the No. 6 heavyweight prospect took part in what could ultimately be the wildest fight of 2025.
With just five shows left of MMA’s top promotion after UFC Vegas 110 on Saturday, this performance from Waldo Cortes-Acosta will be the hardest to top for fight of the year. Unless, and maybe until, something even wilder takes place inside the cage during the remaining shows, what we saw this weekend takes the cake for the craziness in the UFC in 2025.
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