Sometimes, MMA is stranger than fiction.
At UFC Fight Night 263, there was one of those times – but perhaps even more so than usual. Waldo Cortes-Acosta defeated Ante Delija by TKO at 3:59 of Round 1, but the sequence of events that led to it were both ironic and bizarre.
Exactly one week after his teammate Tom Aspinall was the recipient of a high-profile, fight-ending eye poke, Delija (26-7 MMA, 1-1 UFC) gouged Cortes-Acosta (15-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in mad flurry of punches. Referee Mark Smith dove in, but it was unclear if he was calling the fight a TKO or was calling timeout for the foul.
As commission and medical officials entered the cage, Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) executive director Jeff Mullen and referee Eric McMahon reviewed the replay and deemed it was an eye poke.
Cortes-Acosta was allotted time to recover (five minutes from the stoppage) and declared he was ready to fight. Moments after the action resumed, Cortes-Acosta drilled Delija and finished the fight with follow-up punches.
After Smith pulled him off, Cortes-Acosta toppled to the canvas clutching his eye.
Cortes-Acosta reenters the win column after an August loss and moves to 6-1 in his most recent seven. Delija has a two-fight winning streak snapped after a successful professional debut.
