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Title Picturevia MiddleEasy

Cortes Acosta Takes Aim at an Absent Champion

Illustration: a fighter in an orthodox stance, left hand low, right hand high
Illustration by Open Scoring MMA. Generated art, not a photograph, and not a likeness of any real fighter.

Waldo Cortes Acosta went after UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who has not fought in nearly a year. When your champion cannot get in the cage for the better part of a year, contenders are going to start throwing verbal shots, and Cortes Acosta clearly is not interested in staying patient.

Sources (12)

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Split from that day's roundup, so the sources listed are the full set behind the whole edition rather than this story alone.

This story ran in the September 11, 2026 edition of the daily show.