Ante Delija is making up for lost time.
The Croatian knockout artist was supposed to debut in the UFC many years ago against Ciryl Gane, but contract issues waylaid him to Professional Fighter’s League (PFL) for most of five years. The silver lining is that he picked up a million dollar paycheck in 2022 as their Heavyweight tournament champion, but Delija never gave up on his end goal of joining the UFC roster.
Earlier on Friday, a report from ClubDeLasMMA revealed Delija’s next bout has already been booked against No. 6-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta as the main event of a “Fight Night” card scheduled for Nov. 1 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cortes-Acosta just fought at UFC Shanghai, losing a competitive decision to the heavy-handed Sergei Pavlovich. Prior to that loss, “Salsa Boy” had won five straight fights inside the Octagon.
I love to knock on bad Heavyweight main events as much as anyone, but this is an interesting scrap. Delija is bringing some excitement to the mix, and he has a chance to immediately make himself a title contender with a second UFC victory.
