Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, “It’s not the destination. It’s the journey.”
For a different Waldo, both proved nearly problematic as he traveled across the world. Waldo-Cortes Acosta nearly lost his lone cornerman, head coach Javier Torres, twice during his 22-hour journey from Phoenix to Doha, Qatar, for his impromptu UFC Fight Night 265 bout Saturday.
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Cortes-Acosta (16-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) took the fight on Wednesday, was at the airport that night, and flew to New York. It was a connecting flight. With no wiggle room in an all-time tight fight-week schedule, Torres nearly missed the second leg of his flight after a small layover, as he left the airport briefly in pursuit of a marketing idea.
“I had to get out of the airport and find eyepatches in the pharmacy someway, somehow,” Torres told MMA Junkie on Monday. “Waldo is calling, ‘Dude, where are you? We are boarding the airplane to go to Qatar.’ I said, ‘I’ll be there. I’m crossing the security point. I’m almost back.’ In New York, I just came up with the idea. It turned out to be perfect. Waldo with the eye (poke), what happened with Tom Aspinall and the eyepatch, I just came out with the idea. It was perfect. The Pirates. The Fighting Pirates. The Pirates of the Caribbean. The Pirates of MMA.”
With eyepatches in hand, Cortes-Acosta and Torres leaned fully into the Fighting Pirates idea. They picked out a Daddy Yankee song that revolved around the Pirates of the Caribbean on the way there. The mental wheels were turning all flight, which could explain why Torres had a mental slip up when the tandem landed in Doha – one that was nearly fatal to his coaching plans.
When their plane finally touched down, coach and fighter got separated and confusion commenced.
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“We’re figuring out, me and him, how we’re getting back (to each other),” Torres said. “I could walk back to him. I said, ‘Go to floor 4 or 5 or whatever.’ Because I’m talking to him, I just put my hand on the door and the alarm goes crazy. Beep. Beep. ‘Holy sh*t.’ I’m like. ‘What is happening?’ I’m in a different country. I don’t know what’s happening. Three guys came in and then two police came in. I don’t even know how many people came in. They didn’t speak the language, English. I don’t speak their language. I said, ‘Sorry, what’s going on?’ Do I run? What do I do? Are they going to put me in jail? What do I do?’ Six more security guys came in and they made me take my passport. They made me take my ticket, write down my information. They escorted me out and to a room with special security. … And I still had to pass immigration.”
“In my head I’m like, ‘Go make weight. I’ll call the UFC.’ … I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t. I’m going to be in jail in Qatar and this guy has got to fight. Oh my lord,'” Torres said.
With Torres as the only corner there, Cortes-Acosta’s only potential backup plan would’ve been for his wife, not part of the sport, to work his corner. Luckily, Torres was eventually released after much questioning – and the rest was history.
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Cortes-Acosta topped off a week full of rising popularity with a move that skyrocketed his stardom. Not only did he talk the talk, he walked the walk when he knocked out Shamil Gaziev in 82 seconds. One decade into his competitive fighting career, Cortes-Acosta is soaking in the moment, even three days later.
“It means too much for me,” Cortes-Acosta said. “I remember fighting (Andrei) Arlovski. Everybody hated me. They didn’t like me. I felt a little sad and I continued fighting. Right now, I feel good. I feel everything is working. The fruits of the labor came out – all of the fruits of the labor.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Waldo Cortes-Acosta nearly fought without corner after airport mishap
