Brian Ortega Wants To ‘Run That S–t Back’ With Holloway After Title Win

Brian OrtegaWith a title fight at UFC 266 looming, Brian Ortega already knows who he wants his first title defense to be against. Ortega meets Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 266 for the featherweight championship. He does show on the back of an impressive performance against longtime contender Chan Sung Jung. However, in […]

Brian Ortega

With a title fight at UFC 266 looming, Brian Ortega already knows who he wants his first title defense to be against.

Ortega meets Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 266 for the featherweight championship. He does show on the back of an impressive performance against longtime contender Chan Sung Jung. However, in his fight prior to that, he hit a major roadblock in his first title opportunity opposite Max Holloway.

Holloway pieced up Ortega for the duration of the fight, landing 290 significant strikes before the bout was mercifully called to a halt between the fourth and fifth rounds. Ortega showed off a significantly improved stand-up game against ‘The Korean Zombie’, and he told TMZ Sports he believes that – combined with his incredible ground game – will be enough to pick up the victory over Volkanovski (h/t MMA Fighting).

“I see the game, I play the game,” Ortega said. “I’m climbing this technical mountain, to speak. These guys are already there. They’re far beyond me, I admit that, like some technical s–t. But when I get in there, I’m different. There’s some things you can’t teach through technique. On the spot, on the go, when I’m in your face, when I touch you, when I hit you, I make you feel different things. That’s always been my advantage, and now that I’m adding technique to it, I’m climbing, I’m climbing, I’m climbing, I’m learning. I’m only getting more dangerous.”

The loss to Holloway still stands as the only one in Ortega’s career, and he hopes that once he wrestles the belt away from Volkanoski, he will have the chance to redeem that blemish.

“That would be ideal,” Ortega said. “I’m not trying to speak ahead or get past Volkanovski because he beat Max twice, so I’m not here to already start celebrating but that would be ideal. I’m a better person, better fighter than I was when I fought him and watching his last fight, so is he. You always want that. As a fighter, as a competitor, you always want to make that s–t square or to say, ‘Yo dog, you know what? You legit got the best of me. Good s–t.”

While Ortega has certainly improved his striking game since their first meeting in 2018, it can be argued that so too has Holloway. The 290 significant strikes he landed against Ortega was a UFC record, but he since shattered his own watermark by landing 445 against Calvin Kattar. Still, Ortega is willing to see who has really improve the most since their first meeting, and it doesn’t matter to him how many times it takes to get that one back.

“I’m competitive,” Ortega said. “I want to make s–t even. It does bother me. You go in there and you go, ‘F–k!’ I look at my record and I go, ‘F–k, that one belongs to him. Oh you motherf–ker! Good s–t.’ I’m not a hater either. I’m not a hater so I’m like good s–t but I’m from the hood, let’s run that s–t back. (Laughs). Let’s run it back. Let’s always run it back. Let’s f–king get down. Even if he f–ks me up again, I’ll fight you 100 times. I’m gonna get one.”

Do you think Brian Ortega is overlooking Alexander Volkanovski? Who wins the rematch between him and Holloway?

Dana White: Donald Trump Called And Couldn’t Stop Talking About UFC 231

The UFC 231 pay-per-view (PPV) received tremendous reviews from the mixed martial arts (MMA) community. Gunnar Nelson picked up a bloody second-round submission victory over Alex Oliveira after some nasty elbows. Thiago Santos showed extreme toughness …

The UFC 231 pay-per-view (PPV) received tremendous reviews from the mixed martial arts (MMA) community. Gunnar Nelson picked up a bloody second-round submission victory over Alex Oliveira after some nasty elbows. Thiago Santos showed extreme toughness in his second-round knockout win over Jimi Manuwa. Valentina Shevchenko defeated Joanna J?drzejczyk to capture the vacant UFC women’s flyweight […]

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Kevin Lee: It’s Too Soon To Call Holloway GOAT

After his showing this past weekend (Sat. December 8, 2018) at UFC 223, many are already putting UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the GOAT dicussion. Holloway successfully defended his 145-pound title against Brian Ortega in the main event. The Hawaiian was pretty dominant in the match-up, clearly the superior striker through the four rounds […]

The post Kevin Lee: It’s Too Soon To Call Holloway GOAT appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

After his showing this past weekend (Sat. December 8, 2018) at UFC 223, many are already putting UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the GOAT dicussion.

Holloway successfully defended his 145-pound title against Brian Ortega in the main event. The Hawaiian was pretty dominant in the match-up, clearly the superior striker through the four rounds they shared the Octagon. Ortega refused to go down, but was battered pretty badly. In fact, he likely made it through half of the fight on heart alone. 

Recently, there has been talk of Holloway potentially moving up to lightweight. That would mean he’d be facing the likes of top-ranked 155 pounders such as Kevin Lee. Lee will compete this weekend at UFC on FOX 31.

Speaking on “The MMA Hour,” Lee discussed Holloway being tossed into the discussion for GOAT. Lee said people throw fighters into that mix way too fast nowadays (via MMA Mania):

“I feel like in time maybe people will stop doing that. We are talking about something bigger than that. I feel like people are too short-sighted. You win one fight and all of a sudden you are the GOAT,” Lee said.

“And this is no disrespect to Max at all. Max is one of the very few fighters in the game that I got a lot of respect for and actually consider a good friend. He looked amazing, really. We are all kind of the same generation. I feel like me and him both are in the new generation of fighter.

“He set the bar last week and it has given me a bit more motivation, a bit more fuel to go out there and put a show on. But, I feel like that’s not the way you get it done. That’s not the way you become a superstar by automatically let’s just bump up.”

Lee went on to compare the situation to that of UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Immediately after his win over Conor McGregor in October, Khabib called out Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a boxing fight:

“You see the same thing with Khabib. I told this to Ali, you win one fight and all of a sudden you want to fight Floyd Mayweather for $100 million. Come on, this is not how this game works. It’s a marathon.

“Keep putting in the work, keep taking out No. 1 contenders and then maybe you will get there eventually. You talk about guys like Georges St-Pierre who had to defend the title nine or ten times before they started saying that. I feel that is the way the sport should really be. Let’s get back to the real sport, let’s get back to, we’ve already seen it.

“Why do you want Khabib to fight Floyd? It’s not even a great fight. Why do you want Max to come up and fight somebody like Khabib or like me? It’s unfair for him to even have to, that’s a lot of weight. People do not understand, we are competitors.

“We are just too big and too strong. It’s too big of a disadvantage. I feel like it needs to be a clear playing field, and then that’s when you really see the best fight.”

The post Kevin Lee: It’s Too Soon To Call Holloway GOAT appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Alex Oliveira Tapped To Nelson’s Elbows, Not Choke

One of the more exciting finishes of UFC 231 this past weekend was in a welterweight contest between Alex Oliveira and Gunnar Nelson. In the fight, Oliveira seemingly got the better of Nelson in the first round. However, the second round was a much dif…

One of the more exciting finishes of UFC 231 this past weekend was in a welterweight contest between Alex Oliveira and Gunnar Nelson. In the fight, Oliveira seemingly got the better of Nelson in the first round. However, the second round was a much different story. Nelson was able to get full mount on the […]

The post Alex Oliveira Tapped To Nelson’s Elbows, Not Choke appeared first on MMA News.

Eryk Anders Goes Under The Knife Following UFC 231

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight Eryk Anders has undergone hand surgery. This past Saturday night, Anders went one-on-one with Elias Theodorou. The bout was part of the preliminary portion of UFC 231. Theodorou won the bout via split d…

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight Eryk Anders has undergone hand surgery. This past Saturday night, Anders went one-on-one with Elias Theodorou. The bout was part of the preliminary portion of UFC 231. Theodorou won the bout via split decision. Eryk Anders Undergoes Hand Surgery Anders had to go under the knife following the bout as […]

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UFC 231 Preliminary Viewership Averages 786,000

The UFC 231 preliminary viewership numbers have been revealed. This past Saturday night, UFC 231 took place inside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Headlining the pay-per-view was a featherweight title clash between champion Max Hollow…

The UFC 231 preliminary viewership numbers have been revealed. This past Saturday night, UFC 231 took place inside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Headlining the pay-per-view was a featherweight title clash between champion Max Holloway and Brian Ortega. In the end, it was Holloway’s dominant stand-up game that earned him a fourth-round TKO […]

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