LBrian Ortega’s career has been a roller coaster since 2018. The American fighter with Mexican roots arrived undefeated that year, sweeping the featherweight division of the company led by Dana White. At that time, Brian had a record of 14-0with victories against illustrious names such as Frankie Edgar, Cub Swanson o Clay Guida.
However, the opportunity they gave him for the title made him go through the ordeal that most fighters of this weight have gone through during the last decade: face Max Holloway. The Hawaiian was the champion at that time, and he gave him one of the biggest beatings in memory, to the point that the referee decided to stop the fight in the break between the fourth and fifth round.
Holloway taught me the level of heart I have in a fight. When everything goes wrong, we keep fighting
This marked a before and after for Brian, who after this defeat spent almost two years without fighting to assimilate the loss of his undefeated record and return renewed. “Holloway taught me the level of heart I have in a fight. When everything goes wrong, we keep fighting. “My nose broke, my hand too, everything that happened, but in my mind I never gave up,” he came to say.
On the verge of lifting the belt
In 2020, Ortega returned against ‘The Korean Zombie’ with a very different image. Smarter in his movements, and more precise. That was a comfortable victory that would make him fight Volkanovski for the title the following year. However, again another of the best in the entire history of the division He gave him a blow of reality by beating him on points.
It must be remembered that ‘T-City’ was about to finish ‘Volk’ with a guillotine, but Inexplicably the Australian kept his cool and retained the belt. “I watched the video over and over, and I thought: how the hell did this guy get out of that chokehold? He was there, I had him in the guillotine and I thought: ‘I’m about to be world champion!'”the American came to recognize.
Another fight that gets complicated
After this defeat, Brian fought against Yair Rodríguez in a fight that all fans wanted, but He dislocated his shoulder in the first round, which made him stop again and start again. “Yair grabbed me hard and his shoulder dislocated. That was it, no armbar, submission, or anything. It was a freak accident. Stinks. This is the first time something like this has happened to me in my entire career.. “I’m baffled because everything was going well, in my way,” he declared after the fight, visibly affected.
However, as he always does, ‘T-City’ returned in February of this year in a highly anticipated rematch against Yair, whom He ended up submitting after almost being knocked out. This meant he climbed the rankings again and also remained active in the division, something he had not achieved for a long time.
For this reason, just four months later he faced Diego Lopes again, number 14 in the division and one of the biggest promises currently. The bad news came at the weigh-in, when It has been known that Ortega has had complications with his weight and the fight will have to be at lightweight. This is just another chapter in a career full of complications, with one of lime and another of sand.
