Preview: UFC Fight Night 223 ‘Song vs. Simon’

Heavyweights

Marcos Rogerio de Lima (20-8-1) vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta (9-0)

ODDS: de Lima (-180), Cortes-Acosta (+155)

Mixed martial arts is always full of surprises, and de Lima discovering some consistency is high up the list. The Brazilian spent his first few years in the UFC as a light heavyweight and was among the all-time leaders for the promotion in terms of shortest average fight time; "Pezao" would either knock his opponent out immediately or completely implode shortly afterwards, rarely making it out of the first round. But since de Lima's move up to heavyweight in 2018, he made the unexpected pivot of adding some wrestling to his game, and it's proven to make him a shockingly effective fighter; it's rarely pretty and de Lima is still often prone to getting finished, but embracing the grind has been an effective fallback in a division mostly devoid of wrestling. A quick win over Andrei Arlovski last October was the type of high-profile win that's eluded de Lima throughout his career, so it's a bit odd to see him matched up with raw prospect Cortes-Acosta for his next matchup. A former baseball prospect, "Salsa Boy" is a clear athlete with some potential, but the Dominican is also clearly set to hit a wall at some point in the near future. It's legitimately impressive that Cortes-Acosta is able to fight at a high pace for three rounds without flagging given the usual heavyweight standard, but he's nearly been undone multiple times by his lack of defense and hasn't quite carried his knockout power on the regional scene up a level against better competition. De Lima looks to have the knockout power to make Cortes-Acosta pay for his flaws in a way that Jared Vanderaa and Chase Sherman did not, so while there are the usual caveats that de Lima can charge right into a finish himself, this appears to be a case of the UFC rushing a prospect into too much too soon; the pick is de Lima via first-round knockout.

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Song vs. Simon
Borralho vs. Oleksiejczuk
Vieira vs. Brundage
Erosa vs. Padilla
De Lima vs. Cortes-Acosta
Quinlan vs. Waters
The Prelims