“You hit depression” – Brian Ortega talks about recovering from two title fight defeats
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Brian Ortega talks about recovering from defeat in title fight
Brian Ortega’s run for the featherweight championship has not been easy. The fighter has come close to becoming the champion twice and this has taken a huge toll on the fighter. “T-City” talks about staying motivated despite the brutal defeats in his career.
Brian Ortega is now booked to headline UFC On ABC which takes place at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. The fighter will headline the event alongside another leading featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez. This is Brian’s first fight since his title fight defeat against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266 in 2021. Ortega almost managed to submit the featherweight champion but failed to do so.
In the recent promo for this weekend’s UFC Fight Night, Brian talks about recovering from the two title fight defeats. Brian also had the chance to fight for the featherweight title in 2018 against Max Holloway at UFC 231. Ortega was knocked out in the fourth round by Max. Brian has still not given up on his championship dreams and aims to fight to capture that featherweight belt.
Brian Ortega says it is “harder to stay hungry when you’re losing”
“It gets tough having to remotivate yourself. Because it is easy to stay hungry when you’re winning, it’s harder to stay hungry when you’re losing,” says Brian ‘T-City’ Ortega leading up to the fight against Yair Rodriguez. “Especially when you lost two title fights and you’re like, ‘Man, what the f***, this I the ultimate dream of mine and I am fighting for it and it doesn’t seem like it’s going,’ and you hit depression.”
Brian Ortega also talks about letting comments and criticism from the media and the fans get to him after the two title fight defeats. Criticisms have made T-City believe that he actually is not worthy of being a champion. Thanks to Ortega’s girlfriend, Tracy Cortez, a UFC fighter, the featherweight title contender has been able to recover from his defeats and remotivate himself towards achieving his goal.
Brian Ortega’s only defeats in his career have come against the champions of the division, Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. The fighter has a record of 15-2-0 in his professional career and is undoubtedly one of the best in the division. He faces a real challenge against Yair Rodriguez this weekend.
Also read “Almost came to tears”- Derek Brunson recalls how painful it was to watch UFC 276 unfold
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Prateek Athanur
(2944 Articles Published)