Waldo
Cortes-Acosta might soon make it impossible for
Ultimate Fighting Championship matchmakers to ignore him.
The former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion wiped out Ryan Spann
with punches in the second round of their featured
UFC Fight Night 254 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas.
Cortes-Acosta (13-1, 6-1 UFC) drew the curtain 4:48 into Round 2,
winning for the fourth time in as many outings.
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Spann (22-11, 8-6 UFC) was out of his depth in his first assignment
as a heavyweight. Cortes-Acosta punished him with a persistent jab
and buzzed the tower repeatedly with overhand rights. He caught
Spann moving backward late in the middle stanza, decked the Fortis
MMA rep with a beautiful left hook and pounded him unconscious with
a volley of follow-up punches.
Meanwhile, ex-Renaissance MMA titleholder Carlos Vera
dispatched the heavily favored Josias
Musasa with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their
bantamweight encounter.
Vera (12-4, 1-1 UFC) showed the Congolese striker the door 3:16
into Round 1.
Musasa (8-1, 0-1 UFC) tested the waters with repeated inside leg
kicks but never seemed comfortable. Vera gave him pause with a
spinning wheel kick, reset in open space and countered a punching
combination with a perfectly timed head kick. The Ryan Hall
protégé trailed he fallen Musasa to the canvas, moved immediately
to the back and cinched the choke without breaking stride. It soon
became apparent there was no escape.
Vera, 37, has won five of his past six bouts.
Further down the undercard, Team Lucas Mineiro prospect Andre Lima
kept his perfect professional record intact, as he dismissed former
British Association of Mixed Martial Arts champion Daniel
Barez with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their
flyweight encounter.
Barez (17-7, 1-2 UFC) capitulated 3:05 into Round
3.
Lima (11-0, 4-0 UFC) was in rare form. He systematically dismantled
the game but overmatched Barez with crisp standup. Lima blew up the
Spaniard’s base with high-velocity kicks to the lower lead leg,
mixed in savage body-head combinations and threw in standing elbows
to complete the puzzle. Barez eventually broke down. Lima struck
for a takedown inside the first minute of the third round, applied
his ground-and-pound and advanced to the back. From there, he
softened Barez further, snaked his arms in place for the choke and
elicited the tapout.
The 26-year-old Brazilian has stopped six of his first 11
opponents.
Elsewhere, MMA Masters standout Priscila
Cachoeira rebounded from back-to-back defeats to Miranda
Maverick and Jasmine
Jasudavicius, as she punched out Josiane
Nunes in the first round of their women’s bantamweight pairing.
Nunes (10-4, 3-3 UFC) crashed and burned 2:46 into Round
1.
Cachoeira (13-6, 5-6 UFC) was aggressor from the start and never
took her foot off the gas. She pelted Nunes with thumping right
hands and clean one-twos. Nunes marched forward behind punching
bursts of her own but often did so with her head down. Cachoeira
capitalized and clipped her countrywoman with a right uppercut that
sent the Striker’s House export into a fight-ending nosedive.
It was the fifth first-round finish of Cachoeira’s career.
Finally, Carli
Judice put away fellow Dana White’s Contender Series graduate
Yuneisy
Duben with a head kick and follow-up punches in the first round
of their women’s flyweight tiff.
The previously unbeaten Duben (6-1, 0-1 UFC) bowed out 1:40 into
Round 1.
Judice (4-2, 1-1 UFC) walked through a series of low kicks,
staggered the Venezuelan with a few straight lefts and kept her at
a desired distance with rear-leg front kicks to the midsection. She
later fired a kick upstairs, dropped Duben where she stood and
flurried with punches until the job was done.
The win snapped a two-fight losing streak for Judice.
In other Action, “Road to UFC” Season 3 winner Su Young
You (15-3, 2-0 UFC) cruised to a unanimous decision against
A.J.
Cunningham (11-5, 0-2 UFC) in a three-round bantamweight tilt,
earning 30-27 marks from all three cageside judges; and Fortis
MMA’s Sam Hughes
(10-6, 5-5 UFC) eked out a split decision—29-28, 28-29, 29-27—over
former Jungle Fight champion Stephanie
Luciano (6-2-1, 1-1 UFC) in a three-round women’s strawweight
clash.