Ryan Spann has spent the entirety of his MMA career at light heavyweight. Although the new year is still two weeks away, Spann, nicknamed “Superman“, has already started to work on his New Year’s Resolutions for 2025.
Spann (22-10 MMA, 8-5 UFC) will make his 2025 debut over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in March. During a UFC Fight Night card inside the UFC Apex, the 205-lb contender moves up to the heavyweight ranks for the first time.
UFC Fight Night on March 15 has only begun to take shape, with the event still roughly three months away, but it looks as though Ryan Spann has an opponent for his debut at 265.
Ryan Spann Battling Waldo Cortes-Acosta in March
Spann’s first adversary at heavyweight: Waldo Cortes-Acosta. At press time, the contest between Spann and Cortes-Acosta (12-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) had yet to be officially revealed by the UFC.
Let’s go 🔥🥋 https://t.co/57aDEJmWDK
— Kevin (@realkevink) December 17, 2024
It’ll be a three-round affair at five minutes per round. The Spann vs. Cortes-Acosta bout is one of only two fights booked to take place during the March 15 card in Enterprise, NV.
Sizing Up Waldo-Cortes Acosta
Waldo Cortes-Acosta has posted a mark of 4-1 in his last five fights. Currently, he’s on a three-fight winning streak dating back to Aug. 26, 2023.
Seven months ago, he bested Robelis Despaigne (5-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), an alumnus of Texas-based Fury FC, via unanimous decision during the UFC St. Louis undercard on ESPN and ESPN+. Despaigne will make his way to the Karate Combat pit this Thursday night versus Dominik Jedrejczyk during Karate Combat 51 in the promotional debut for both men.
Cortes-Acosta was slated to have returned to the famous UFC Octagon this past October in a contest against Chris Barnett (23-9 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at the UFC Apex facility, but the fight was withdrawn from the card amid due to the former sustaining an injury. Instead, Barnett’s return was delayed by two weeks until Oct. 26 at UFC 308 vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu (14-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC).
By the time the cage door shuts for his fight with Ryan Spann on March 15, Waldo Cortes-Acosta will have not gone to battle in about 10 months’ time. Only time will tell if he’s able to get his hand raised after the contest.
Looking At Ryan Spann
In the other corner, Spann has posted a mark of 2-3 in his last five fights at light heavyweight. Most recently, he saw a three-fight losing streak snapped thanks to a first-round submission via guillotine choke on Oct. 5 versus Ovince Saint-Preux (27-18 MMA, 15-13 UFC) during UFC 307 in Salt Lake City.
After the fight, Ryan Spann talked to Joe Rogan about his slump-busting victory.
“I wanted to come in here… I wanted to come in here and be free,” Spann said to a cheering audience. “I wanted to show the world my work, and more importantly, I wanted to show my kids my work. I wanted to show that hard work pays off, all day, every day.”
Backstage, “Superman” discussed his training regimen for that October night.
“We just did a lot of work,” he said. “We’ve been very consistent with our work. I’ve felt, at times, in there, while moving, that I was a little sloppy and I didn’t do things conducive to what we’ve been working on at Fortis [MMA]. I want to fix that and clean that up.”
When Ryan Spann was asked about a possible return date in the aftermath of UFC 307 in October, he wasn’t targeting any specific day or venue.
“I just want to get back to work,” he mentioned. “I’m blessed with the opportunity to be able to do this and provide for my family, and so, we’re just going to get back to work. My son is starting, well, he’s already started, football, and to me, it’s starting because I’ve been so busy with this that I had to miss out on some things, so now I can kind of focus on him while doing my work at the same time.”
Final Thoughts
This fight between Ryan Spann and Waldo Cortes-Acosta should be a lot of fun to watch. It’ll be a good test for Spann in his first outing at 265.
