Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Having former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title contender, Brian Ortega, headline the UFC Mexico card against Chan Sung Jung seems like a no-brainer, but for whatever reason, the fight fell apart and the promotion opted for Yair Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Stephens.
That’s not to suggest that “Pantera” vs. “Lil’ Heathen” won’t be fireworks or doesn’t deserve the ESPN+ main event, it was just disappointing to lose Ortega vs. Jung. I guess “T-City” shares that disappointment and is hoping “Korean Zombie” is still on board to make it happen at some point in the immediate future.
“I want to fight. I want to give the fans a main event fight somewhere,” Ortega told MMA Fighting. “Korean Zombie sounds good, especially after the fact that he’s talking shit, which is not like him, so I’m guessing there’s something behind that. If he can keep talking and the fans want to see it and we can make that a main event somewhere, we should.”
Ortega (14-1, 1 NC) suffered the first loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career when he was beaten pillar to post by Max Holloway at the UFC 231 pay-per-view (PPV) event last December in Toronto, a bout that left him with multiple injuries.
As for Jung (15-5), he rebounded from his stunning knockout loss to the aforementioned Rodriguez in late 2018 to obliterate Renato Moicano at UFC Greenville back in June, just his third fight since returning from active military duty in South Korea.
A place UFC will be in December (hint, hint).