UFC featherweight contender Brian Ortega has revealed the disturbing story behind his iconic UFC 266 walkout, which was inspired by the film ‘The Purge’.
Brian Ortega challenged for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 266 back in 2021, taking on then-champion, Alexander Volkanovski.
Although ‘T-City’ was beaten by ‘The Great’, his walk to the cage will always be remembered as one of the greatest ever, as he and his team came out in masks inspired by the film, ‘The Purge’.
Brian Ortega reveals the dark story behind his iconic walkout
Ahead of his short-notice UFC 303 co-main event fight against Diego Lopes this coming Saturday, the 33-year-old has revealed the story behind his iconic walkout, and it is rather disturbing.
“At that time I was living in an apartment, I had left my house when I separated (from my previous partner), and there was this neighbor upstairs who just every hour it was like 2-4 in the morning and I’m like, dude do you guys not go to sleep what is going on?” Ortega began to explain at the UFC 303 media day.
“I was watching some reels (on Instagram) or something and ‘The Purge’ song came on, and I started fantasizing, not the best thing but if ‘The Purge’ was real the first thing I’m doing is going upstairs,” Ortega disturbingly admitted.
The 33-year-old went on to explain how going through the disturbances during fight camp of what was the most important fight of his career thus far, led him to come up with a last-minute plan for his walkout.
“It feels like they’re dragging something across the floor all night, like if you need help let me know, and after I complained (to the Landlord), I swear they’d double down on it, so that was just in my head, like dude if ‘The Purge’ was real I’d go upstairs and just handle business.
“Then I was like, dude, what if I walked out to this, wouldn’t that be dope? There’s no logos on this (mask) it costs $5, cheapest walkout ever and the soundtrack was dope and I messed with all of you guys in the crowd,” Ortega continued.
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Ortega’s original plan was more frightening but the UFC wouldn’t clear it
‘T-City’ also admitted that the original plan was for the walkout to be more ‘scary’ and for it to give a real ‘The Purge’ feel, but the UFC couldn’t clear his original plans because it had to be known it was only a walkout.
“Imagine they shut everything down, at least the song I originally had was a little more scary, it felt a little more real so I was hoping I’d make everyone in the crowd kind of get scared a bit, like, ‘Hold up, what’s going on? Did they really allow this, what’s going on, why’s the UFC doing this?
“But the UFC wouldn’t go along with my plan, they had to make it to where it has to be known it’s just a walkout, can’t have people panicking,” Ortega added.
The 33-year-old is preparing for what is likely going to be a tough weight cut down to 145lbs for UFC 303 this coming Saturday, as he was preparing to move up to lightweight for a fight at UFC 306.
Despite that, he is looking to halt the momentum of the soaring featherweight contender, Lopes, in what could be his last featherweight fight for a while.