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Brian Ortega’s intro at UFC Mexico City was almost disastrous
A few seconds ahead of his fight with Yair Rodriguez at UFC Mexico City this past Saturday, it appeared as though Brian Ortega suffered an injury. As Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer introduced Ortega, he jumped and came down heavy on the canvas, which led to him rolling his ankle.
As Buffer continued, Ortega tried to tend to his ankle, but you could see there was cause for concern for ’T-City,’ who was returning to the Octagon after nearly two years away.
“Talk about things [being] stacked against me,” said Ortega during his post-fight press conference. “Bruce was introducing me and then I jumped up, and when I landed, I rolled my ankle. I was like, ‘Oh shoot!’ and I looked at my coach and I was like, ‘Bro, this is bad’. And he’s like, ‘don’t you f—king worry about it!’ He was just telling me to get in the zone, it doesn’t matter.
“When they were introducing [Yair Rodriguez], I was trying to flex my ankle like, come on, bro, work,” continued Ortega. “Don’t you dare fail me right now. Like, we got five rounds — it’s not even a regular co-main event. I’d be lying if I said panic didn’t set in for a bit.”
Ortega recovers from ankle roll, rallies to tap Yair Rodriguez
Things got worse for Brian Ortega after he was sent to the canvas twice by Yair Rodriguez, who was hoping for another finish of the Rener Gracie representative. However, the tide turned, as Ortega recovered and recomposed himself near the end of the first round.
“Obviously, I started off — right off the bat. I started off, I got clipped and then I paid the price for not being in the zone and focused on what I was supposed to do,” said Ortega. I survived it. I think near the end — I don’t even remember, but I think I ended up somehow taking him down at the end of that first. Then I walked back, the adrenaline kicked in and I was like, ‘Alright, there we go’.”
“[The ankle] was hurting and obviously when you’re paying attention to it, it’s hard to really focus on the fight,” continued Ortega. “I was like, ‘dude, this would happen right now. What an idiot! You roll your ankle right now in front of 22,000 people and you have a war with this tough guy in Mexico and everyone’s going for him. Like, come on, bro. I had to fight some demons in there.”
At least he avoided a similar fate suffered by Miguelito Grijalva.
In the second and third rounds, Ortega used his jiu-jitsu to control Rodriguez on the ground, where he finally found an opportunity to tap ‘El Pantera’ with an arm triangle.
Is Brian Ortega vs. Ilia Topuria next?
Now that he has returned to the win column, Brian Ortega has a few options to consider for his next fight. Of course, this fight felt as if it could crown a new No. 1 contender for newly crowned UFC champion Ilia Topuria, who dethroned Alexander Volkanovski a few days ago.
However, Ortega would understand if the UFC would prefer to go the immediate rematch route with Topuria and Volkanovski. That said, if the ‘Great’ needs more time to recover, he is ready to go against Topuria.
“There’s some questions out there, but obviously, Volk was a great champ,” said Ortega. “For people to kick him down right now, I find it kind of disrespectful for everything that he’s done. Some things have to play themselves out, and we’ll see.
“But if he decides that he does not want to fight and chill, then I’m more than happy to go to Spain.”