UFC featherweight Brian Ortega has officially apologized
for slapping Korean rapper Jay Park at UFC 248.
‘T-City’ had previously been angered by Park who acted as translator for ‘Korean Zombie’ during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show last month.
This anger reached boiling point at UFC 248 this past weekend when Ortega approached and assaulted Park who was in attendance with his friend ‘Korean Zombie’ – who was not involved in the altercation after leaving the area to go the toilet.
Yesterday Ortega posted and then deleted the below message in which he explained his actions and refused to apologize to “instigator” Park.
“On May 9, 2018, Jay Park signed The
Korean Zombie to a management contract under AOMG Entertainment, of which Park
is the CEO, and soon after the trash talking began. When I finally made it to
Korea for the press conference, TKZ approached me with his translator (a real
one, not Jay Park) and said ‘I want to apologize for the trash talking, it was
my management that wants to do it to promote the fight’.” Brian Ortega wrote.
“I accepted his apology, shook his hand and we had a great press conference.
Soon after I tore my knee, and the fight got cancelled. Four weeks ago, The Korean
Zombie and Jay Park went on Ariel’s show and said I dodged the fight. ‘Dodging’
and ‘injury’ are two separate things, and since I already knew JP was the one
writing the script, that’s when I welcomed him to the fight game and warned him
to watch his mouth.”
“On Saturday night, I slapped three people at the same time. I apologize for slapping the ‘translator’, I apologize for slapping the ‘K-Pop Star’, but I don’t apologize for slapping the ‘instigator’.
Ortega appears to have had a change of heart after quickly deleting the post and issuing a proper apology last night, which read.
“I want to officially apologize to JPark for Saturday night, when Zombie is ready we can fight.”
Who wins when Brian Ortega and ‘Korean Zombie finally meet in the octagon?