Brian Ortega shares the dark backstory behind his iconic UFC 266 ‘Purge’ walkout

One of UFC featherweight Brian Ortega’s wildest moments during his UFC career has dark origins behind it.

Ortega will face the surging Diego Lopes in the UFC 303 co-main event this Saturday in Las Vegas. The fight came together on weeks’ notice after Conor McGregor’s withdrawal from the card’s main event.

Ortega is looking to keep his positive momentum, and stop Lopes’s, as he attempts to work towards another title shot.

The former title challenger Ortega’s second title fight took place against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266. As he made the walkout, Ortega donned a themed mask inspired by The Purge movie series, alongside his corner.

It was arguably one of the most unique walkouts in UFC history. But to Ortega, it centers around a series of disturbing memories.

Brian Ortega: Loud neighbors inspired ‘Purge’ walkout

During his UFC 303 pre-fight media day, Ortega explained the dark origins behind his UFC 266 walkout.

“At that time, I was living in an apartment, and had left the house when I separated,” Ortega said. “And there was this neighbor upstairs that every hour, it was like two in the morning, three in the morning, four in the morning… I’m like dude! Do you guys go to sleep? What’s going on? Come on now. I got a fight I gotta train for, I have a world title [fight], what are you guys doing? And then I was watching some reels or something and the Purge song came on, and I started fantasizing if the Purge was real, the first thing I’m doing is going upstairs…

“I’m not a snitch, right? I’m not a complainer, but I hit up the landlord…I know they snitched on me before because I was playing with my kids a little too rough. I was running around one time…and they called the cops because they thought I was gonna kill my kids,” Ortega continued. “To me, it wasn’t that crazy, that’s how we play around…sounded like they were dragging something across the floor all night! If you need help, let me know! So that was just in my head, if the Purge was real, I’d go upstairs and just handle business.”

The Purge series is a set of dystopian horror films centered around 12 hours in which all crime, including murder, is legal.

Unfortunately for Ortega, he didn’t follow up the walkout with a title win. He lost to Volkanovski in the Octagon by unanimous decision, despite several near submissions.

Luckily for Ortega’s previous neighbors, the featherweight star didn’t act on his impulses, and the promising fighter will look to return to the win column at UFC 303.