Thanks to Ultimate Fighting Championship’s massive bankroll used to promote the Featherweight title fight between former division champion Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor back in 2015, the bout was one if the most-anticipated fights in division history. Though it didn’t live up to the bill come fight night thanks to Conor’s 13-second knockout.
With both men now gone form the championship picture, the new blood has been delivering as current champion Max Holloway defeated Aldo in back-to-back title fights, while Brian Ortega’s skyrocketed up the rankings by defeating the likes of Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson, just to name a few.
And as “Blessed” and “T-City” get set to do the dance at the upcoming UFC 226 pay-per-view (PPV) event on July 7, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ortega claims their championship fight will be the biggest since Aldo vs McGregor.
“From what I have seen, I feel like this is going to be the biggest fight in featherweight history since Conor and Aldo. If you look at it as in terms of the biggest fight, I feel this will be the biggest since then. I feel like he’s fought the same guys I fought except for Frankie. He beat Aldo twice. These guys are from a different generation, right. I feel like these guys are the beginning of the featherweight division, and now I fought against a veteran and he fought Aldo and he was against a veteran. Now you truly have two young guys who are at their peak of their prime, at the top of their level and we are going to fight each other. For me this is exiting because I come in here in this game to test myself. And right now I’m competing against the best guys in the featherweight division. Now I’m sitting as the No. 1 contender. There is no other way to put than you are going to have two real hungry guys, one is hungry to keep it and the other is hungry to take it. There’s nothing else to it man except that the fireworks show is’t going to be on fourth of July but on the seventh of July.”
While the 145-pound title fight likely won’t beat Aldo vs McGregor as far as promotion goes, it does have the chance to leave it in the dust performance-wise thanks to Conor’s quick world of Aldo. And though “T-City” has shown to have knockout power, it’s safe to say this title fight will go longer than 13-seconds.
And since Holloway also loves to stand-and-bang (proof here), fight fans could be in for a legendary title fight in a couple of weeks which could ultimately prove Ortega right at the end of the night.
To learn more about the upcoming UFC 226: “Miocic vs Cormier” pay-per-view (PPV) event click here.