Ante Delija | Making Waves

And with very good reason, as the journey to the UFC has been a long and challenging one for the Croatian heavyweight.

After earning his stripes in the Balkans, Delija began making occasional business trips to Russia where he eventually landed opposite Tybura in a fight for the M-1 Challenge heavyweight title. A little more than two minutes into the contest, the challenger suffered a gruesome leg injury requiring multiple surgeries, which eventually resulted in Delija getting a bacterial infection.

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He missed nearly three years, but he didn’t miss a beat upon his return, collecting three straight wins. This led to the first round of interest from the UFC, who signed him to face Ciryl Gane in the fall of 2020 only for the bout to the scuttled because Delija was under contract elsewhere. He remained with the PFL and put up quality results, going 8-3 overall.

A win over UFC alum Yorgan De Castro a year later became his last fight on the regional circuit. He then signed with the UFC, rolled into Paris, and ran through Tybura, catapulting himself into the Top 10 straight away with a chance to climb higher on Saturday with a win over Cortes Acosta.

“I do see him as a very serious fighter and a very serious opponent; he is ranked sixth for a reason,” Delija said about his Dominican opponent who is coming off a decision loss to Sergei Pavlovich last time out.

While their heights and reach are similar, “Salsa Boy” is the physically larger of the two and has roughly 20 pounds on Delija, but the more seasoned heavyweight sees a couple key areas where he carries advantages that could produce success.

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“I do believe I’m much faster on my feet, and my endurance is much better than his,” he offered. “I think those two things are very important for this Saturday’s fight.”

One of the other keys to his potential success this weekend comes from changes to where he’s training, which were made roughly 18 months ago.

Though he still spends time training in his native Croatia when there, Delija spent the last year-and-a-half logging rounds at Evolution Fitness XL, the one-stop-shop where UFC heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall sharpens his skills. During that time, Delija, who was sporting black t-shirt emblazoned with the Aspinall logo during our call, worked hand-in-hand with the British titleholder and stood as one of his most trusted and experienced teammates.

It's not a one-way relationship either. In Paris, Aspinall was in the crowd and on his feet, beaming with excitement when Delija stopped Tybura.

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“For the past year-and-a-half I’ve been training with Tom, and in every training that we have, I see the progress,” he said when asked about his work with Aspinall and his father, Andy, who serves as the skipper of the burly side. “I’ve shown that in my previous two fights, and I cannot wait to show it again on Saturday.”

Breaking into the Top 10 with a single win in the UFC is a rare occurrence, but Delija has already done that, and now he’s set his sights on the next rare achievement: consecutive wins over Top 10 fighters to open his tenure, which would in turn push him further up the rankings into a position where only a few men would stand between him and his belt-carrying teammate.