UFC's Waldo Cortes-Acosta calls for top contender bout vs. Curtis Blaydes next
UFC's Waldo Cortes-Acosta calls for top contender bout vs. Curtis Blaydes next Waldo Cortes-Acosta is looking for a step-up in his next UFC fight.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta wants to prove he's worthy of a UFC title shot, and he knows to do that he'll have to take difficult fights.
The rising heavyweight contender called for one of the tougher challenges in the UFC heavyweight division following his unanimous decision win over Serghei Spivac this past Saturday at UFC 316. Cortes-Acosta (13-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) wants to throw down with former UFC interim title challenger and long-time contender Curtis Blaydes.
"Like I told you before the fight, God willing, if UFC allows it, I'd like to fight against Curtis Blaydes," Cortes-Acosta told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. "I want to prepare 100 percent and give it my all, and see what happens. I can prepare myself physically better, and work hard like I always do. I do know that I need to work hard now that I'm facing these guys because they're more advanced, more experience."
Cortes-Acosta, who's on a five-fight winning streak, thinks doesn't see himself too far from title contention, and thinks a win over Blaydes could close him that gap. The Dominican fighter sees a showdown against Blaydes very much like his fight on Saturday – a striking affair that will eventually get his opponent to start wrestling.
"I think that's a fight that will mainly lay out in the feet, but the moment things get complicated for him, he's going to look for the takedowns," Cortes-Acosta said. "That's what happened in this fight When Spivac started having difficulty striking, he looked to take the fight to the ground because I started catching him. The moment I began connecting my jab, I thought, 'I found him. I got this.'"
As far as his win over Spivac, some people online scored the fight for the Russian fighter despite Cortes-Acosta out landing Spivac in significant and total strikes in every round of the fight. He disagrees with the "robbery claims" and thought he clearly won the fight.
"The first round, I had a tough time figuring him out," Cortes-Acosta explained. "I was a little confused, and I couldn't find him with my jab. Then after, towards the end of Round 1, I began to find my jab. I do give him the first round. He looked better. However, in the second, my accumulation of strikes was too much. Then in the third, my coach said I connected more than 100 strikes. So yeah."
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USA Today
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Mailbag: What in the world is Sean O'Malley's next move after back-to-back UFC title losses?
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That's where he should stay until the UFC makes it financially worthwhile to leave (which, let's be honest, probably isn't going to happen). @justlikelasagna: Isn't it time to start thinking about UFC after Dana White. They haven't pushed names they've always pushed him. Except everything but UFC seems to be grabbing Dana's attention recently. What's the next step post Dana? I've never seen anyone look so disinterested running a billion-dollar company. One of the UFC's great strengths is its organization. Most fight promotions are a damn mess, but the UFC is a well-oiled machine that can churn out weekly events on auto-pilot from now until the rapture. The flip side of this is that it seems to have gotten pretty boring for UFC CEO Dana White, who had to have the current state of his heavyweight division explained to him on Saturday by the media members who have actually been paying attention. Advertisement That said, I don't think anything short of death would get him out of that job. He's too synonymous with the brand, and clearly the day-to-day demands of the job are not exactly an inhuman labor. Eventually, yes, there will probably be a UFC without White. But this content machine could already plug along without him (and largely does, in purely practical terms) so I'm not sure how much it would really change anything. @wolfe_was_here: Tito Ortiz's ¿wizardry? of the English language was recently on display again. What are a couple of your favourite excerpts from The Tao of Tito? You know what amazes me about Tito Ortiz's magical way with words? It's the consistency. For decades this man has been showing up and talking about how he fights to put food on the roof and a table over his family's head — and he's never once showed the slightest bit of self-awareness about any of it. At a certain point we must abandon the notion that Ortiz is bad at talking and is instead a genius at some other form of communication that the rest of us can't even fully conceive of. It's like those aliens in 'Arrival' who have not only a different language, but a completely different mode of expression and comprehension of both time and space. He's operating on a totally different mode and has been for decades. How else could he have managed this? @EyeofMihawk: Can we finally do away with unearned title rematches now? O'Malley got smashed. Juliana Peña still thinks she can call dibs. Yair Rodriguez turned down Diego Lopes. None of them deserve a title shot. This has to stop. Advertisement OK, I will admit that when I saw Julianna Peña trying to call 'dibs' on the winner of Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes, I had to check and make sure I wasn't being trolled by a fake account. I get it, fighters have to be at least a little bit delusional. And over the years Peña has given us reason to think she's well past a little bit. I think that's definitely helped her at times. She's won some fights she had no business winning simply because she was the last person to realize how overmatched she was. But this time? After that showing? I struggle to understand what's going on in her head. She was never really in that fight with Harrison, and the loss brought an end to one of the least distinguished title reigns in UFC history. A close second is her first title reign, which also ended as soon as she had to defend the belt. I don't really blame her for trying to put her name in the mix, just like I don't blame Sean O'Malley for accepting that rematch or Yair Rodriguez for aiming up at gold rather than a fellow contender. The title is where the money is, so why not ask for a shot? The worst they can say is no. Or, in Peña's case, maybe hell no. @JSanchezOnSI: Hey Ben! Just discovered you and loving your work my man. I'd like to know where you think O'Malley goes from here? Fight a few lower ranked guys? Move down a weight? 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Lots of fighters have struggled in their UFC debuts and then gone on to have great careers. The list of people who lost their first fight in the UFC includes Merab Dvalishvili, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua, Fabricio Werdum, Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva, just to name a few. Mix fought a very tough opponent and took about two rounds to wake up, by which point it was too late to get back in the fight. That can happen. It doesn't mean he was never any good to begin with. As for other Bellator champs, they've mostly come over to the UFC only after having entire careers elsewhere. That comes at a cost. @SLefkaditis: If Merab beats Cory, is there any other fight than Pantoja? Advertisement Sure, there are other fights. I get the sense the UFC would like to get Umar Nurmagomedov back in there with him for another shot. I'm not saying I love the idea, but I don't think it would take much to talk the UFC into it. Honestly, I think Dvalishvili would be a very, very tough fight for Alexandre Pantoja. But if the flyweight champ wanted to take the risk and move up in weight, I'd sure watch it. He does seem like a man in need of a challenge. @forty7pitches: Do you think the UFC will ever get to Connor levels again? I'm not sure it really cares to. I think the UFC learned a few things from the Conor McGregor era, one of which is that there are easier ways to make consistent, predictable profits that don't rely on catching lightning in a bottle. Stars are tricky in this sport. They tend to be a lot less compliant than the rank-and-file fighters on meager 50/50 contracts that fill out the content calendar. Do I think we could see another star emerge who's as big or bigger than McGregor? Sure. This is an individual sport and there's always someone out there with the potential to capture the attention and imagination of the audience. I just don't think that's a priority for the UFC or its parent company right now.
