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ortes-Acosta (16-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) will look to build upon a hyper-active 2025 campaign in which he made five appearances. "Salsa Boy" won four of those bouts, including stoppages of Ryan Spann, Ante Delija and Shamil Gaziev – the latter pair his most recent outings that also earned bonuses.
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Lewis (29-12 MMA, 20-10 UFC) only made one appearance last year, and it didn't even last a minute. "The Black Beast" made quick work of Tallison Teixeira, finishing the fight in just 35 seconds. Lewis has won two straight, the other being a third-round finish of Rodrigo Nascimento.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Derrick Lewis UFC 324 expert pick, prediction
Filling out the paid portion of the card is a potential crossroads fight at heavyweight between Derrick Lewis and Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
I gotta give credit where it's due and admit when I'm wrong.
Although I've been admittedly hard on Cortes-Acosta, he appears to be proving that there's more to him than just his natural athletic gifts and propensity to unjustifiably showboat in fights. In fact, I believe that he's ready to take Lewis' mantle of the chaotic knockout king of the division.
The potential problem, however, is that Cortes-Acosta is gonna have to take that mantle from Lewis himself.
I've been pretty good about being on the right side of some of Lewis' more wild results, but – as the great Brian Stann stated many years ago – "The Black Beast" quietly does well against grapplers but tends to struggle with strikers who can match his athleticism.
And as much as I'd love to see Lewis serve Cortes-Acosta some humble pie, there's no denying that the Dominican fits the bill as far as being a problem goes.
I'm a big fan of Lewis, but I have to put my bias aside and pick Cortes-Acosta to win. That said, I suspect we could be in store for some staring contests, given the power and propensity to counter on both sides of this equation.