Waldo Cortes-Acosta has been a busy man the past couple years.
The Dominican heavyweight, a baseball standout in his former sporting life, fought an almost unheard of five times in 2025. This year, he’ll step into the cage for the fourth time Saturday in Las Vegas.
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Cortes-Acosta (17-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) got pressed into short-notice main event duty against Johnny Walker (23-10 MMA, 9-7 UFC), who will be fighting in the heavyweight division for just the second time. They’ll headline UFC Fight Night 293 (Paramount+) at the Meta APEX. The bout was put together less than two weeks ago after the card’s original headliner between Gabriel Bonfim and Sean Brady fell off due to a Brady injury.
His past couple fights, decision losses to Alexander Volkov and Curtis Blaydes, have put a stall in the momentum Cortes-Acosta had coming into 2026. To close out 2025, he had back-to-back first-round knockouts of Ante Delija and Shamil Gaziev, both of which were bonus-winners.
And to open 2026, he took on what at the time was his biggest test yet: two-time title challenger Derrick Lewis. He passed the test with flying colors and a second-round knockout, which was his third straight win.
Ahead of his fight against Walker, in which he’s a 2-1 betting favorite, check out WCA’s finish of Lewis in the video above.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Fight Night 293 video: Watch Waldo Cortes-Acosta take out Derrick Lewis
