Brian Ortega News

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 231 in Toronto, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will collide with undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Ahead of the UFC 231 card, this long-awaited Holloway vs. Ortega fight is being hailed as one of the best matchups ever — at least on paper. The two 27-year-old stars possess some of the most versatile and dangerous skillsets in the game — something they’ve proven on their respective win streaks.

Cole Shelton - December 6, 2018

This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 231, streaking UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will attempt to defend his title against undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Heading into this fight, fans are divided in their predictions. As it turns out, professional fighters are also treading both sides of the fence.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

Max Holloway and Brian Ortega are two of the most dangerous and versatile young fighters in MMA, and this Saturday, in the main event of UFC 231, they’ll fight. Heading into this fight, which will see Holloway attempt to defend his featherweight title against Ortega, fans are divided in their predictions.

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2018

If Brian Ortega defeats UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 231 this Saturday in Toronto, don’t expect him to defend his new title right away. He’ll be busy with other things for a few months. Speaking at a UFC 231 media lunch in Los Angeles this week, the undefeated featherweight title challenger announced that he’ll soon be appearing in an action film — in the lead role.

Cole Shelton - December 4, 2018

Brian Ortega and Max Holloway are set to fight at UFC 231 on Saturday for the UFC featherweight belt. This isn’t the first time the two have been scheduled to fight, however. At UFC 226 in July, Holloway and Ortega were booked to collide, but Holloway ended up having to pull out of the fight. It was reported that the Hawaiian had concussion-like symptoms and perhaps some trouble with his weight cut. However, it has never been revealed what actually happened. As a result, Ortega has lingering doubts

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2018

Yesterday afternoon, it was announced that Brazil’s Renato Moicano will be the standby fighter for the UFC 231 main event. He will be called to arms in the event that UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway or undefeated challenger Brian Ortega isn’t able to show up. Apparently, Moicano is very ready for the opportunity. In fact, he advised Max Holloway to just stay home.

Tom Taylor - November 28, 2018

If UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway or undefeated challenger Brian Ortega isn’t able to make it to the cage for their anticipated UFC 231 main event title fight, Renato Moicano will be called up to step in and replace the absent fighter. The streaking Brazilian featherweight contender will fly to Toronto, the card’s host city, and weigh-in as an understudy, according to ESPN. Moicano was originally expected to battle Mirsad Bektic on this anticipated card, but unfortunately, this bout was nixed when Bektic sustained an injury. Though the promotion apparently sought a replacement opponent for him, they ultimately decided to simply fly him into Toronto as an understudy.

Tom Taylor - October 9, 2018

Shortly after submitting Conor McGregor at UFC 229 on Saturday night, UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov climbed out of the Octagon and dive-bombed McGregor’s training partner Dillon Danis. Nurmagomedov and Danis then engaged in a brief fight, as McGregor began to scuffle with Nurmagomedov’s entourage inside the Octagon. Despite this wild scuffle, Dillon Danis was reportedly out enjoying Las Vegas’ night life shortly thereafter. This according to top UFC featherweight contender Brian Ortega.

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.