Waldo Cortez-Acosta ended Ante Delja with a brutal first-round KO after a horrific eye poke moments earlier seemed to be the end of the night.
It was a crazy turn of events for Cortez-Acosta, who wentuge his eye, followed by a flurry of punches from Delja, forcing referee Mark Smith to intervene. The bout was briefly stopped, but replays showed that Delia’s finger clearly hit Cortez-Acosta in the eye before unleashing a flurry of punches for the finish.
Cortes-Acosta was clearly injured after being hit in the eye, but was given time to recover and allowed to continue if he wished due to the foul. Eventually he decided to restart the fight, and Cortez-Acosta came out looking possessed.
Just seconds later, Cortez-Acosta landed a perfectly timed right counter that flattened Delia and sent him crashing to the canvas. “Salsa Boy” fired several more shots into the ground as Smith swooped down and rescued Delya from further harm.
The stoppage happened at 3 minutes and 59 seconds into a crazy first round.
“I feel like there’s a finger in my eye,” Cortez-Acosta said after his win. “The referee told me to stop, so I stopped. I don’t know if the referee or something poked me in the eye. I felt like I could continue, so I decided to continue. My eyesight is about 20 percent. (Tom) Aspinall, I’m going for you, I’m ready.”
“I’m angry. I’m Dominican. It’s in my blood. I’m excited. I want to go back. I want to be world champion.”
It was a remarkable comeback for Cortez-Acosta, especially considering he was hit in the eye and then took multiple punches while covering his face, but the referee didn’t even see the replay. Cortez-Acosta had a towel over his eyes during his post-fight interview, but it was clear he had recovered enough to resume the fight and score the knockout.
It was a big win for Cortez-Acosta as he got back on track after losing his last fight to Sergei Pavlovich, but Delija suffered his first loss in the UFC after a successful debut.