Former PFL heavyweight champ Ante Delija was looking to shake off a chaotic loss to Waldo Cortes-Acosta when he faced off against Serghei Spivac at UFC Houston.
Delija, who trains alongside UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall, had initially thought he’d beaten WCA in their fight last November. After an eye poke was declared, however, the bout was restarted, and Waldo completed the comeback, landing a knockout blow later in the opening round.
Spivac, for his part, had lost his last two, with one of those opponents also being Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
Round 1 – The two met in the center of the cage, with a big early exchange that allowed Delija to show his speed advantage. The right hand was sharp and landed clean early, but Spivac returned with a nice flurry up close. Spivac tried picking his shots from the outside, avoiding the flurries of Delija in the pocket. Both men were opened up early on, with Delija bleeding from his nose and Spivac above his eye. Spivac’s jab started to land at a nice rate, even off the back foot; he was able to control Delija’s blitzes. Delija looked to land his left hook, but was whiffing more often than not.
Round 2 – Delija missed a couple of early punches, struggling with Spivac’s range management and distance control. The jab was clean from Spivac, covering Delija’s face with blood. He started to get more confident with his strikes, mixing in some clean right hands. After being timed on his jab, Delija caught Spivac with a big right and sent him to the cage, following up with some big combinations that hurt the Moldovan. Instead of continuing to land, Delija surprisingly went to the clinch, being reversed and held on the cage for most of the remainder of the round.
Round 3 – Spivac opened the final frame working his jab while trying to push Delija to the cage. Delija defended an initial takedown but was taken down on the follow-up attempt from Spivac. Spivac did a good job controlling on top, but Delija eventually worked back to his feet with 90 seconds to work. Delija attempted to work into range and land a big combination, but didn’t find the one he wanted. He did catch Spivac with a left hook right before the final bell, but didn’t land a big shot the way he did in Round 2.
Official Result: Serghei Spivac def. Ante Delija by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
