“Salsa Boy” is different.
No. 6-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Waldo Cortes-Acosta was involved in one of the wildest moments of the night at UFC Vegas 110 last night (Sat., Nov.
1, 2025) inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cortes-Acosta was initially finished in the first round by Ante Delija, but an instant replay review revealed an eye poke moments before the stoppage. The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) ruled the strike accidental and restarted the fight — and just seconds later, “Salsa Boy” knocked Delija out (watch highlights).
“I’m a different breed,” Cortes-Acosta said during the UFC Vegas 110 post-fight press conference (watch here). “I was born in the Dominican Republic. Everything is war there, everything is like war. One poke in the eye with everything that’s happened in my life, this can’t stop me. I’m never going to let a poke in there lose me an opportunity that can change my life and my family’s.”
The sequence drew immediate comparisons to last weekend’s UFC 321 controversy, where Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall suffered an eye poke that resulted in a no-contest. When reporters asked Cortes-Acosta why he chose to keep fighting rather than take the safe route, his answer was simple — and powerful.
After his win, Cortes-Acosta called for a fight with Aspinall and provided the reasoning.
“One, he’s champion, and two, he quit because of a poke in the eye, and third because his training partner — I knocked him out in the first round,” Cortes-Acosta said. “So why isn’t the fight happening between me and Tom Aspinall? Tom Aspinall says [Delija)] is one of the best, and look what happened, that is what can happen between Tom Aspinall and Waldo Cortes.”
With the victory, Cortes-Acosta bounced back from a unanimous decision loss to Sergei Pavlovich earlier this year in China, which snapped his five-fight win streak. The 34-year-old “Salsa Boy” improves to 8-2 inside the Octagon, putting himself right back in the Heavyweight title conversation.
For complete UFC Vegas 110 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
