Curtis Blaydes Turns Takedown Threat Into an Upset of Waldo Cortes Acosta

Curtis Blaydes did not need sustained ground damage to change the terms of his heavyweight fight with Waldo Cortes Acosta. He needed enough successful wrestling to make Cortes Acosta manage distance, suppress exchanges and concede minutes.

That produced a unanimous-decision victory Saturday at Noche UFC in Glendale. BJPenn.com reported that all three judges scored the bout 29-28 after Blaydes completed takedowns in the first and third rounds, controlled from top position and kept the final round on a low-output track.

The result landed as a meaningful upset. Four days before the fight, Blaydes was available from +162 at FanDuel to +180 at BetOnline, while Cortes Acosta ranged from -205 to -215 across seven tracked sportsbooks. The market sided with the younger recent finishing run and the stronger defensive wrestling number. Blaydes broke that read without having to dominate every phase.

Takedown defense did not eliminate the wrestling problem

Cortes Acosta entered with 73 percent career takedown defense, a 38-point advantage over Blaydes’ defensive rate. That statistic mattered, but it described only one part of the matchup. Blaydes was the fighter dictating whether wrestling exchanges happened at all.