Underdog Wins, quick finishes, and ANOTHER eye Poke??
On a card that was ridiculed online for being a weaker fight night, we had a couple of interesting occurrences, including another heavyweight eye poke, but this time they continued! (12) Steve Garcia vs (13) David Onama was the main event of the 11/1 card in Vegas. The card also included a heavyweight matchup with two top contenders hoping to carve out title shots. (6) Waldo Cortes Acosta taking on (9) Ante Delija is going to be the main talking point for most people, but the card had a couple of things worth discussing. Yadier Del Valle submitted Isaac Dulgarian in the 1st in a dominating fashion, able to derail the hype train of the American. He had relentless pressure walking down Isaac, throwing long jabs and lengthy kicks at range, but turned up the speed when getting close to his opponent, showing that it was just be to much in the end. Perhaps a ranked opponent is on the other side of this victory for Del Valle; he’s a problem, so watch out.
Getting its own section is the co-main event of tonight between (6) Waldo Cortes Acosta vs (9) Ante Delija. From the second the bell rang, these two heavyweights started the pressure. Ante had the obvious speed advantage and was winning the short exchanges between the two, but you could tell that when Waldo was able to sit on his shots, it was getting through to Croatian. Ante gets Waldo into the corner and realizes this is his moment. The heavyweight turns up the pressure, mixing in a combination of fast jabs and straights while sitting on a shot every few attempts, trying to get the finish, and after Acosta covers up, the referee Mark Smith steps in between the two fighters….TKO win Ante Delija….. Aspinall gets ready to relinquish your belt…. or so we thought. After further review, they decided that before the major shots started getting thrown, Ante actually landed a mean eye poke into Acosta’s eyeball, leaving Mark Smith to say that if the fighter cannot continue after the eye poke, then the fight would be ruled a no-contest. Delija was just running around with his coaches, celebrating a victory, and now he has to lock in because this fight might still be going. After the fight continues, the first exchange BOOM, Waldo Acosta drops Delija onto the mat, gets on top, and finishes the Croatian. Controversially, I think it was handled correctly. Yes, I think someone should have relayed the message to Ante’s corner, but emotions were high, and everyone just wanted to figure out what was happening. Good fight, freak finish.
The main event doesn’t have much to talk about. Garcia walked his opponent down and did not allow Onama to create separation or get his bearings together. Garcia called for this fight, called for the main event, and got the outcomes he foresaw. He looked good, landed violent shots and combinations, controlled the ring, and in the end got out of there with very minimal damage. After winning, he called out Max Holloway for the BMF fight and a chance at the Hawaiian. Honestly, on many levels, this is unrealistic and just not a possibility overall, so skipping that, some realistic options for him are open and available. (7)Youseff Zalal was in the corner vs Onama, good story, maybe a shot against (8) Brian Ortega. Hear me out, though, ideally, stick him against (6)Arnold Allen, both boxers have powerful hands, and will be there to entertain. Regardless, good win for Garcia, and the performance was worth the bonus. Congratulations.
