Compare Curtis Blaydes vs Waldo Cortes Acosta — UFC matchup breakdown
Tale of the Tape
The biometric deltas where one side genuinely has an edge.
Activity & layoff
The recency dimension Tale of the Tape doesn't carry. How active each fighter has been, and how that compares to active peers in their division.
Division percentiles below rank both fighters against the Heavyweight roster (343 fighters).
Recent form
Last five pro bouts (non-UFC fights dashed + tagged), current trajectory, and the level of opposition going into this matchup.
Common opponents
Every UFC opponent both fighters have faced — a direct comparison controlling for matchmaking.
Schedule Score
Who they've faced × what they've done. Composite + components compared head-to-head, percentile-ranked against every UFC fighter w/ ≥3 resolved bouts.
Per-tier records + bout-by-bout
| Tier | Curtis Blaydes | Waldo Cortes Acosta |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | 1-3 | — |
| Top-5 | 6-3 | 2-2 |
| Top-15 | 6-0 | 3-1 |
| Cross-div ranked | — | 1-0 |
| Unproven | 1-0, 1 NC | 4-0 |
- L vs Josh Hokit56Apr 11, 2026 · Top-5
- W vs Rizvan Kuniev51Jun 21, 2025 · Top-15
- L vs Tom Aspinall#197Jul 27, 2024 · Champion
- W vs Jailton Almeida#776Mar 9, 2024 · Top-5
- L vs Sergei Pavlovich#388Apr 22, 2023 · Top-5
- W vs Tom Aspinall#691Jul 23, 2022 · Champion
- W vs Chris Daukaus#873Mar 26, 2022 · Top-15
- W vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik#681Sep 25, 2021 · Top-5
- L vs Derrick Lewis#485Feb 20, 2021 · Top-5
- W vs Alexander Volkov#782Jun 20, 2020 · Top-5
- W vs Junior Dos Santos#487Jan 25, 2020 · Top-5
- W vs Shamil Abdurakhimov#972Sep 7, 2019 · Top-15
- W vs Justin Willis#1069Mar 23, 2019 · Top-15
- L vs Francis Ngannou#493Nov 24, 2018 · Champion
- W vs Alistair Overeem#289Jun 9, 2018 · Top-5
- W vs Mark Hunt#580Feb 10, 2018 · Top-5
- W vs Aleksei Oleinik#971Nov 4, 2017 · Top-15
- W vs Daniel Omielanczuk#1563Jul 8, 2017 · Top-15
- NC vs Adam Milstead8Feb 4, 2017 · Unproven
- W vs Cody East8Oct 1, 2016 · Unproven
- L vs Francis Ngannou68Apr 10, 2016 · Champion
- L vs Alexander Volkov#287May 9, 2026 · Top-5
- W vs Derrick Lewis#882Jan 24, 2026 · Top-5
- W vs Shamil Gaziev#1167Nov 22, 2025 · Top-15
- W vs Ante Delija#970Nov 1, 2025 · Top-15
- L vs Sergei Pavlovich#388Aug 23, 2025 · Top-5
- W vs Serghei Spivac#774Jun 7, 2025 · Top-15
- W vs Ryan Spann45Mar 15, 2025 · Cross-div ranked
- W vs Robelis Despaigne8May 11, 2024 · Unproven
- W vs Andrei Arlovski#1578Jan 13, 2024 · Top-5
- W vs Lukasz Brzeski8Aug 26, 2023 · Unproven
- L vs Marcos Rogerio de Lima58Apr 29, 2023 · Top-15
- W vs Chase Sherman8Nov 19, 2022 · Unproven
- W vs Jared Vanderaa8Oct 29, 2022 · Unproven
All figures are 0–100 ratings (shown as %), not percentages of anything literal. Schedule strength = the average quality of every UFC opponent faced (win or lose). Win quality = the average quality of the opponents actually beaten. The composite Schedule Score combines schedule strength (65%) with win quality (35%). Per-bout opponent quality is scored on rank-at-time-of-fight (champion 100, ranks 1–5 = 90→78, ranks 6–15 = 75→60), with cross-division and P4P signals layered on, falling back to opponent UFC record-at-time for unranked opponents. For fighters with limited UFC experience the headline is held toward a rookie baseline, so debut / low-sample fighters read lower than established names. UFC ranking data is sparse before December 2018, so legacy-era fighters score from record-at-time when ranks are missing.
Career splits
Striking matchup
Each fighter's offense mapped against the other's defense — where one attacks meets where the other gets hit, across head, body, and leg. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time.
Evenly matched striking — no clear edge either way.
Where Blaydes attacks (green = high volume) vs where Acosta gets hit (red = vulnerable) — Blaydes’s green zones meeting Acosta’s red zones are the openings.
- Head73%80th575
- Body11%48th88
- Leg15%69th121
Color = division rank · green elite → red low · % = share of strikes
- Head40%68th212
- Body20%33rd108
- Leg40%7th209
Color = division rank · green elite → red low · % = share absorbed · partly opponent-dependent
- Standing54%420
- Clinch18%144
- Ground28%220
- Standing98%516
- Clinch2%12
- Ground0%1
Each lane: the attacker’s strike rate (offense) vs the other’s rate absorbed (defense), graded on the division. The bar leans toward whoever wins the exchange — longer + greener = a bigger, higher-quality edge.
Full breakdown — all zones, both views
| Zone | Fighter | Landed / 15 | Accuracy | Absorbed / 15 | Career landed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Curtis Blaydes | top 20% of division43.4 | 45% | below division average35.1 | 575 |
| Head | Waldo Cortes Acosta | top 13% of division49.7 | 43% | above division average24.8 | 537 |
| Body | Curtis Blaydes | around division average7.4 | 86% | top 30% of division5.9 | 88 |
| Body | Waldo Cortes Acosta | above division average11.0 | 69% | below division average10.7 | 113 |
| Leg | Curtis Blaydes | above division average9.1 | 89% | top 26% of division3.4 | 121 |
| Leg | Waldo Cortes Acosta | top 24% of division10.1 | 80% | bottom of the division18.2 | 109 |
Per-15-minute rates are sourced from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Division percentile is computed against every UFC fighter who has competed in this weight class with at least two recorded bouts. Lower “absorbed” values are better — the percentile is inverted so “top of division” always means better outcome.
Grappling matchup
Takedowns, submission threat, and control. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time, with takedown defense as a percentage of opponent attempts stopped.
Each metric graded on the division — the bar leans toward whoever wins that part of the grappling exchange (longer + greener = a bigger edge).
Blaydes has the grappling edge (+9).
Full breakdown — career grappling totals
| Metric | Curtis Blaydes | Waldo Cortes Acosta |
|---|---|---|
| Takedowns landed / 15career takedowns | 4.658 | 0.44 |
| Takedown accuracycareer landed / attempted | 45%58 / 128 | 50%4 / 8 |
| Takedown defensecareer stopped / faced | 35%7 / 20 | 74%17 / 23 |
| Submission attempts / 15career attempts | 0.00 | 0.11 |
| Control time / 15 (min)career total | 6.6 min82:38 | 1.4 min13:51 |
| Time controlled by opponent / 15 (min)career total | 0.7 min8:55 | 1.0 min10:13 |
All rates computed from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Takedown defense = opponent attempts stopped ÷ opponent total attempts. Control time figures are minutes the fighter spent in a dominant position per 15 minutes of fight time. Accuracy under 8 career attempts is shown raw and ungraded — too small a sample to rate against the division.
Finishing & durability
How often each fighter ends fights early — and how often they get put away. Outcomes view, not per-minute output.
When their fights end
every pro finish on the fight clockFinish & durability rates
Full professional career
Full method breakdown
| Outcome | Curtis Blaydes | Waldo Cortes Acosta |
|---|---|---|
| Wins | ||
| by KO / TKO | 13(68%) | 9(53%) |
| by submission | 0(0%) | 1(6%) |
| by decision | 6(32%) | 7(41%) |
| Losses | ||
| by KO / TKO | 5(83%) | 0(0%) |
| by submission | 0(0%) | 0(0%) |
| by decision | 1(17%) | 3(100%) |
Full professional career method splits, graded against the full-pro division distribution. Career KO losses are the total — clean knockouts and cut/injury stoppages can’t be separated outside the UFC corpus. Finish-time pace is UFC-only.
KO history
UFC fights only — knockout power and chin durability, head-to-head, then when the last finish landed, and on whom.
- Last time KO'dvs Tom Aspinall1y 10mo agoUFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 · Jul 27, 2024 · R1 · 1:00
- Last time submittedNever submitted in the UFC
- Last time KO'dNever finished by strikes in the UFC
- Last time submittedNever submitted in the UFC
Pace & fade
How each fighter's work rate holds up as a fight wears on — round-by-round output (striking, takedown attempts, and control time combined), and whether they fade. The fade % compares round-3 output to round 1 over bouts that reached the third round.
Both lean the same way, but Acosta leans harder: Acosta builds (+15% per round through round 3), Blaydes builds (+10% per round through round 3). Within fights that reached round 3, Blaydes sustains 100% of round-1 output by round 3, Acosta 146%.
Rounds backed by fewer than 2 bouts are drawn smaller and dimmed with an n= count — a deep round seen in one or two fights is a thin sample, not a settled rate. Per-round bout counts are in the breakdown below.
Full per-round breakdown — both fighters
What drives the pace · per round
The composite output line above blends these three inputs. Splitting them out shows whether a fighter’s work rate is built on striking volume, takedown pressure, or top control — and which input fades.
| Round | Fighter | Output / min | Sig landed / min | Sig absorbed / min | TD att / min | Control | Bouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Curtis Blaydes | 7.4 | 3.7 | 2.7 | 0.70 | 39% | 20 |
| R1 | Waldo Cortes Acosta | 4.5 | 3.8 | 3.1 | 0.07 | 14% | 13 |
| R2 | Curtis Blaydes | 8.3 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 0.66 | 41% | 16 |
| R2 | Waldo Cortes Acosta | 6.7 | 6.3 | 3.7 | 0.04 | 7% | 10 |
| R3 | Curtis Blaydes | 9.0 | 5.2 | 3.3 | 0.55 | 52% | 8 |
| R3 | Waldo Cortes Acosta | 6.3 | 5.9 | 4.2 | 0.05 | 6% | 8 |
| R4 | Curtis Blaydes | 7.5 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 1.20 | 73% | 1 |
| R4 | Waldo Cortes Acosta | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| R5 | Curtis Blaydes | 7.1 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.00 | 69% | 1 |
| R5 | Waldo Cortes Acosta | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Output / minis the headline work rate — significant strikes landed, plus 3 per takedown attempt, plus one per 15 seconds of control — so a takedown-and-grind round isn’t scored as idle the way bare striking volume would. The remaining columns are its components. Per-round rates use UFCStats per-round data (available for ~95% of bouts since 2008). Each round’s rates are averaged only over bouts that reached that round, so the bout count shrinks as rounds deepen. The final round of a finished fight is pro-rated by its actual length — a 2:30 stoppage counts as 2.5 minutes, not five — so an early finish doesn’t distort the per-minute pace.