We now have a date for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s next Noche UFC
show.
Per
MMA Junkie on Tuesday, the organization is putting together a
top-10 heavyweight contest pitting Waldo
Cortes-Acosta (17-3) against Curtis
Blaydes (19-6, 1 NC). The two will tangle at Noche
UFC 4, possibly also UFC 331, on Sept. 19 at a destination
still to be determined. This pairing has since been confirmed by
other outlets.
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Details still loom regarding UFC 331, Noche UFC dates and
locations
There remains ample confusion as to the scheduling of this Noche
UFC 4 card, as the date of Sept. 19 is also reported to be UFC 331.
It is possible that fights on this billing and/or the Sept. 12 show
slated for Arizona could shift around depending on the nature of
the Noche UFC 4 celebration. Early reports indicated this event
could be held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, but that
has yet to be confirmed. Only one other bout is set for this
billing, a bantamweight brawl as Charles
Jourdain takes on Marlon
Vera.
A mighty heavyweight campaign for Cortes-Acosta in 2025 saw him
compete five times in the calendar year, winning four of those five
while scoring three knockouts along the way. This year also started
swimmingly for the Dominican, as he punched out Derrick
Lewis at UFC 324 to push his win streak to three. When meeting
Alexander
Volkov for a de facto title eliminator match in May,
Cortes-Acosta fell short to the Russian on the scorecards. After 13
bouts in his UFC career, “Salsa Boy” has
already reached the top 10 for the most significant strikes
landed in modern heavyweight history.
While Cortes-Acosta has been racking up striking totals to get his
name added to that leaderboard, Blaydes has done so as well in a
variety of context. Notably, the next person above the former
baseball pitcher on the aforementioned sig. strike total list is
Blaydes, having notched 50 more than his adversary. Additionally,
Blaydes is the division’s all-time leader in takedowns landed by a
country mile, with the next active fighter of Serghei
Spivac holding less than half of Blaydes’ total, 32 to 66. Like
the Dominican, “Razor” is coming off a loss, albeit a “Fight of the
Year”-worthy brawl against Josh Hokit
in April.