Oct 11, 2018
Ortega looks to complete path to UFC gold at UFC 231
Being undefeated eight years into your mixed martial arts career is rare enough, but claiming UFC gold with an unblemished record is an even more spectacular feat.
Being undefeated eight years into your mixed martial arts career is rare enough, but claiming UFC gold with an unblemished record is an even more spectacular feat.
Tickets for UFC 231 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on December 8th for the general public go on sale at 10am (et) on Friday.
Currently, only one active UFC champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, can lay claim to both of those achievements, but that number could double if Brian Ortega is successful in his title challenge against Max Holloway on December 8 at UFC 231 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
“That’s the ultimate flawless victory moment for me, being undefeated, getting the title and saying damn, we did it,” Ortega told TSN.ca. “My journey has just been crazy, it’s been ups and downs and times where I had surgery and didn’t think I was going to come back, then came back and had to have surgery again. Just trial and error and all these crazy things that have happened in my life to finally get there undefeated would just mean that I overcame it all.”
The 27-year-old has already overcome obstacles that have felled other men, building a 6-0 record in the UFC, with one no-contest, including a victory over former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 that finally earned him a spot in a title match.
However, that opportunity was supposed to come in the co-main event of UFC 226, but Ortega’s opponent Holloway was forced to pull out of the fight due to “concussion like symptoms.”
Ortega was offered interim title fights, but held fast to his plan to fight for the undisputed title.
“We looked at it and my entire team thought the same thing, why go for an interim title against someone that’s not even on your level when we could go for the real belt,” said Ortega. “So we stuck to our guns and Dana White and the promotion were a little upset that they didn’t get to have the fight they wanted for a co-main event, but after everything was said and done and the dust settled we basically rebooked the fight.”
The Los Angeles native is looking at his second camp for this fight as a chance to be even more ready for this moment.
“At first I was like ‘I gotta do another damn camp again’, I have to redo the work, I have to put myself back in that state of mind where it’s kill or be killed and it’s like, this is my ultimate shot of a lifetime and just trying to go back to that state of mind,” said Ortega. “I realized this will give me the chance to go back and fix or get better at all of the things I should’ve been better at in the first camp.”
The goal at the end of both camps is to be prepared to take the gold away from Holloway, who hasn’t lost since a 2013 bout against Conor McGregor. Ortega knows completing his goal will not be easy.
“I’m expecting a war, he’s a champ and there’s only one way to get that belt and that’s to take it from him and he’s not going to give it up easily,” said Ortega. “I’m expecting a war, we have twenty-five minutes in there together with each other and we’re going to make it happen.”
As for the excitement that he plans to bring in Toronto, the message is very simple.
“Don’t blink.”