Brian Ortega News

Drake Riggs - August 25, 2018

One of MMA’s most highly anticipated matchups possibly of all time was missed out on at UFC 226. But now it appears to be on for a new date. Ar UFC 226, the featherweight crown was expected to be defended by the reigning champion Max Holloway as he was set to take on the blazing hot contender Brian Ortega in the co-main event.

Tom Taylor - July 11, 2018

When UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was removed from last Saturday’s UFC 226 bill, his opponent Brian Ortega was offered a last-minute replacement fight with surging featherweight knockout artist Jeremy Stephens. Ortega turned this fight down. While Ortega has since explained his reasoning, Stephens still feels he was ducked by the undefeated contender.

Tom Taylor - July 11, 2018

Undefeated featherweight contender Brian Ortega was supposed to battle divisional champ Max Holloway for the title in the co-main event of last weekend’s stacked UFC 226 card. Regrettably, this plan was derailed when Holloway was forced off the card at the last minute — allegedly with concussion-like symptoms, though UFC President Dana White has suggested other issues could have been at play. “It’s a weird situation,” White said at the UFC 226 pre-fight press conference. “Some people think it’s concussion-related and some people think it’s weight-cut related.

Tom Taylor - July 11, 2018

Brian Ortega did everything he was supposed to do with respect to his planned UFC 226 featherweight title fight with champ Max Holloway. He trained his butt off. He dieted. He navigated an extensive schedule of media obligations. He showed up in Las Vegas. He participated in the open workouts. Unfortunately for him, Holloway was forced off the card at the last minute, which meant the fight itself didn’t happen. Apparently, that also means Ortega might not get paid…

Tom Taylor - July 5, 2018

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway’s title fight with undefeated challenger Brian Ortega isn’t happening. Not at UFC 226 this Saturday, at least. Last night, the MMA community was rocked by the terrible news that Holloway had been pulled from the fight with concussion-like symptoms — certainly not the kind of thing to take lightly.

Tom Taylor - July 5, 2018

Last night, UFC 226 was dealt a crushing blow as featherweight champion Max Holloway was forced out of his co-main event featherweight title fight with undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Holloway was removed from the card, which goes down this Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, with concussion-like symptoms — truly not the kind of thing to take lightly. “Max’s team and UFC staff noticed Max was not normal since late last week,” Holloway’s management told MMAjunkie shortly after this unfortunate news broke. “This became obvious to many watching his interviews and public appearances the past few days.

Drake Riggs - May 2, 2018

When it comes to the top 145-pound fighters on the planet, there’s only one that’s better than Brian Ortega…and that might not even be the case come July. Once upon a time, a brash and outspoken Irishman stood atop this division as some may have forgotten. It feels like so long ago that he made the 145-pound limit…

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2018

When Tony Ferguson was forced out of his UFC 223 lightweight title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, top UFC featherweight contender Brian Ortega was briefly considered as a replacement opponent for the Russian star. Though the opportunity to fight Nurmagomedov instead went to UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway — and ultimately Al Iaquinta — Ortega is still intrigued by the potential matchup. He believes that his world-class jiu-jitsu skill make him a very dangerous test for the undefeated Russian grappler.

Drake Riggs - April 20, 2018

International fight week is shaping up! Already topped with an amazing super fight between the heavyweight and light heavyweight champs, reports are now coming in that there will be even more gold on the line for the night of July 7th in Las Vegas. Earlier today it was reported by Ariel Helwani that a heavyweight showdown between Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis vs the recent heavyweight title challenger, Francis Ngannou is a done deal.

Tom Taylor - April 2, 2018

From the sounds of it, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway wasn’t the only featherweight to accept a last-minute fight with undefeated lightweight dynamo Khabib Nurmagomedov. While it was ultimately Holloway who got the fight, surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega also accepted a matchup with Nurmagomedov. Ortega dropped this interesting tidbit on Twitter on Monday afternoon. He also assured that while the Nurmagomedov matchup landed in Holloway’s lap, he’ll fight both men in the future.

Tom Taylor - March 21, 2018

When Californian featherweight Brian Ortega knocked out Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, he usurped the New Jersey native’s spot as the division’s number one contender. Ortega is now poised to challenge reigning featherweight champion Max Holloway for the title, just as soon as the champ is fighting fit. Speaking on The MMA Hour this week, Holloway explained that, while he’s very excited to fight the undefeated Ortega, he can also envision a world where Edgar racks up a few wins  and earns another title shot.

Justin Golightly - March 16, 2018

After Brian Ortega did what no man has done before to Frankie Edgar, the hype surrounding a big title fight against UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is growing to epic proportions. In many ways, it almost mirrors the UFC 223 fight against Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Holloway is on a 12-fight win streak and Ortega is on a 13-fight win streak. A fight like this hasn’t gone down in the division since Conor McGregor’s scrap against Jose Aldo. It’s reasons like this why Holloway believes this fight is huge. “My interest in fighting [Brian Ortega]: I’m very intrigued. I can’t wait to fight. I love fighting and I love competition. You want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. The best is ‘Blessed,’ and right now he’s saying and people are saying he’s the one. I can’t wait. We’ll find out. […] He proved to the world why he’s the No. 1 contender. Looks like I’ve got a new cupcake flavor, so I’m excited. I like horchata, so I can get that horchata flavor – it’s delicious.”

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

Very few matchups have people buzzing so early as the next featherweight title fight between champion, Max Holloway and red-hot contender, Brian Ortega. The hype began as soon as Ortega iced his short notice opponent, Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 in the very first round, making him the first and only man to ever finish ‘the Answer’.

Tom Taylor - March 8, 2018

After knocking out Frankie Edgar in the co-main event of UFC 222 last weekend, Brian Ortega now has his crosshairs locked on UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. It’s a monumental challenge, to say the least, but it isn’t stopping Ortega from looking further into the future. On a recent episode of theUFC Unfiltered podcast, the surging featherweight contender shared grand plans to move to the lightweight division down the road. That being said, Ortega isn’t going to be heading North to 155 pounds for any old challenge. It’s going to take something truly special to coax him up to this heavier division.

Tom Taylor - March 8, 2018

Last Saturday night, in the co-main event of the action-packed UFC 222, former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar risked the featherweight title shot he had so clearly earned in a short-notice bout with surging contender Brian Ortega. Unfortunately for Edgar, this bout went disastrously, as he was put down by an Ortega in the uppercut in the very first round of the fight. This knockout loss marked the first time Edgar had ever been finished in his illustrious career. It also meant that his claim to a featherweight title shot had been dashed – quite possibly forever. As such, it’s no surprise that this loss caused absolute devastation among his cornermen, who watched on nervously from cage-side.

Justin Golightly - March 7, 2018

After Brian Ortega’s historic finish of former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, there wasn’t really any doubt that he deserved the right to challenge Max Holloway for that featherweight title. However, we all know that nothing is certain in this world, especially in combat sports. One phone call can change all that and that’s what this video is all about. Check out Ortega smiling ear-to-ear reacting to Dana White calling him to tell him he’s got the shot. “I heard 227 in August was supposed to be UFC Hawaii, but I Tweeted 226 because you know, I gotta move on. You can’t hold this stuff forever, I can’t hold my breath. I got a life, I got a family to take care of, I got a little kid, I got fans. If I can’t get UFC Hawaii I said, the Ninth Island is the next best thing. It’s tough pill to swallow but at the end of the day, it is what it is. We can’t control nothing. All we can do is create buzz. I’d like to thank all the fans who are creating buzz.” — Max Holloway speaking to KHON 2.

Tom Taylor - March 6, 2018

When Brian Ortega knocked out Frankie Edgar in the co-main event of last weekend’s UFC 222, he earned himself a shot at increasingly dominant UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. From the moment Ortega earned this bout with Holloway, it’s been talked about as one of the best fights in the history of the featherweight division; a collision of two tremendous, young talents and well-rounded arsenals and killer instinct to boot.

Chris Taylor - March 4, 2018

Frankie Edgar’s coach issues emotional statement following KO loss to Brian Ortega Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (22-6-1 MMA) suffered the first stoppage loss of his legendary mixed martial arts career to Brian Ortega at last night’s UFC 222 event in Las Vegas.