Top heavyweight contender Waldo Cortes-Acosta will compete for the fifth time this year when he steps in on short notice to fight at UFC Qatar this Saturday.
Set to close out a nine-week stretch of consecutive events before the UFC ends 2025 with a pair of cards in December, UFC Qatar marks the promotion’s first visit to the country and is headlined by a pivotal lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Dan Hooker.
The card was also supposed to see Serghei Spivac take on Shamil Gaziev in a battle between top heavyweight contenders, but Cortes-Acosta will now step in to replace Spivac and face Gaziev on just 3 days’ notice (first reported by Carlos Contreras Legaspi).
Waldo-Cortes Acosta Set For Fifth UFC Fight Of 2025
Following Legaspi’s initial report, Cortes-Acosta confirmed the news via both his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
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Estamos firmes
Estamos activos estamos listos
— Waldo Cortes (@WaldoCortesUFC) November 20, 2025
Currently the UFC’s #6-ranked heavyweight contender, Cortes-Acosta entered this year on a three-fight win streak and put himself on the verge of title contention when he extended that winning run to five with victories over Ryan Spann and the aforementioned Spivac.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Serghei Spivac (red gloves) during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
“Salsa Boy” had his win streak halted by Sergei Pavlovich in August before he knocked out former PFL Heavyweight Champion Ante Delija earlier this month. The 34-year-old is now set to compete just three weeks after stopping Delija, and the matchup with Gazeiv will also be his fifth fight of 2025.
Shamil Gaziev Gets Higher-Ranked Opponent At UFC Qatar
Sitting several spots below Cortes-Acosta as the UFC’s #11-ranked heavyweight, Gaziev now has a chance to vault even further up the rankings after he was previously supposed to meet the #7-ranked Spivac.
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Gaziev joined the UFC as an unbeaten talent off of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2023 and secured a “Performance of the Night” bonus in his debut when he stopped Martin Buday at UFC 296. Immediately thrown into a UFC Fight Night main event for his second UFC outing, Gaziev suffered the first loss of his career against Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Martin Buday (red gloves) fights Shamil Gaziev (blue gloves) during UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
The 35-year-old rebounded by taking a decision over Don’Tale Mayes before he knocked out Thomas Petersen earlier this year, and the short-notice matchup with Spivac joins a UFC Qatar card that features a total of 14 fights.
• Main Event: Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker
• Co-Main Event: Belal Muhammad vs. Ian Machado Garry
• Volkan Oezdemir vs. Alonzo Menifield
• Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai
• Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Shamil Gaziev
• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
• Luke Riley vs. Bogdan Grad
• Saygid Izagakhmaev vs. Nicolas Dalby
• Alex Perez vs. Asu Almabayev
• Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev vs. Raffael Cerqueira
• Bekzat Almakhan vs. Aleksandre Topuria
• Ryan Loder vs. Ismail Naurdiev
• Nurullo Aliev vs. Shem Rock
• Marek Bujlo vs. Denzel Freeman
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