I guess beating Conor McGregor ain’t what it used to be.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight contender, Brian Ortega, will put his undefeated record on the line against reigning 145-pound titleholder, Max Holloway, in the UFC 231 pay-per-view (PPV) main event this weekend in Toronto (more on that here).
With a victory, “T-City” will look to join the ever-growing list of champions unsatisfied with the dwindling challenges in their own divisions and will instead seek greener pastures in the 155-pound weight class, assuming it’s still ruled by Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Every grappler, we have this since even before I was training, this whole wrestler vs. jiu-jitsu,” Ortega said during his recent media scrum (via MMA Fighting). “We get along in the gym and we’re always like, you know, this is a matchup. Our hands are both good. He’s a top game guy and a wrestler and I’m a bottom game guy and a jiu-jitsu guy.”
Just don’t expect him to make the same mistakes McGregor made when “Notorious” was handily submitted by “The Eagle” in the UFC 229 championship main event last October in the promotion’s home base of Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I was watching a lot of things in that fight, where, if I was in that position, there’s a lot of things I’d be doing differently,” Ortega said. “And that kind of just made me realize, kind of just, what I want is a superfight, if I ever get there, and it’s within reach. If I play my cards right, it’s within reach.”
While Dana White and Co. have no problem rubber-stamping super fights (proof), things are still unsettled at lightweight. That’s because former interim titleholder, Tony Ferguson, is still waiting for his crack at the crown.
Assuming this wacky scenario never comes to be.
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