Waldo Cortes-Acosta delivered a brutal first-round knockout to complete Ante Delija after it regarded like his night time may finish after he suffered a ugly eye poke simply moments earlier.
It was a wild flip of occasions for Cortes-Acosta after he took an eye fixed gouge adopted by a flurry of punches from Delija that compelled referee Mark Smith to intervene. The struggle was stopped momentarily however replays confirmed that Delija’s finger clearly poked Cortes-Acosta within the eye previous to the barrage of punches he unloaded in an try to get the end.
Cortes-Acosta was fairly clearly harm from the attention poke however he was given time to get well and because of the foul, he was allowed to proceed if he needed. He finally determined to restart the struggle and Cortes-Acosta got here out like a person possessed.
Simply seconds later, Cortes-Acosta uncorked a superbly timed counter proper hand that flattened Delija and despatched him crashing to the canvas. “Salsa Boy” adopted up with a couple of extra photographs on the bottom as Smith swooped in to rescue Delija from additional hurt.
The stoppage got here at 3:59 in a loopy first spherical.
“I really feel a finger go deep inside my eye,” Cortes-Acosta mentioned after his win. “The referee mentioned cease, I finished. I don’t know the referee or one thing didn’t poke me within the eyes. I made a decision to proceed as a result of I really feel I can proceed, my eye is at like 20 p.c imaginative and prescient. [Tom] Aspinall, I am going for you, I’ll be prepared.
“I’m mad. I’m Dominican. That’s in my blood. I’m excited. I wish to come again. I wish to be champion of the world.”
It was a outstanding turnaround for Cortes-Acosta, particularly contemplating he ate quite a few punches whereas protecting up his face after the attention poke that the referee didn’t see till the replay. He clearly recovered sufficient to restart the struggle and rating the knockout, though Cortes-Acosta was nonetheless placing a towel over his eye whilst he carried out his post-fight interview.
It’s an enormous win for Cortes-Acosta as he will get again on observe following a loss to Sergei Pavlovich in his earlier outing whereas Delija suffers his first loss within the UFC after a profitable debut.
