UFC featherweight Brian Ortega recently revealed his internal monologue following a win as opposed to a loss. When he got to face Max Holloway and challenge for the UFC featherweight title, Ortega expected to win. He was undefeated, with a 14-0 record. Unfortunately for him, Max Holloway demolished Brian Ortega. Ortega revealed on Fight Nation with Jimmy Smith that he seriously spiralled following that first career loss, realizing that the elite ranks of the UFC were far beyond his ability.
“It happened to me. It literally happened to me — I want to say for two years. And I was winning, I would fight and I would win, and I was just like, ‘Alright, cool. My job is done. Let me go back to life. I want to go eat Jack In The Box, I want to go eat this, I want to go on vacation, I want to go surfing, I want to be a beach bum.’
I would go back to enjoying my life as I called it and it wasn’t until I lost then it made me reassess everything. When I reassessed everything is when I said, ‘Dude, I f****** suck. Like, I suck. I thought I was good because I was winning but then these guys at the top, they’re a different level. They’re doing other things. What’re they doing? What am I missing? I have the skills to be a UFC fighter but I don’t have the skills nor the discipline or consistency to be at the top. And if I gotta do that, I gotta change a lot of things about my life.’”
A reinvented Ortega returned to action, earning himself another title shot, this time against Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski. Ortega lost that fight, but will look to rebuild himself against Yair Rodriguez this weekend. He credits the Holloway loss with helping him rebuild in the first place, and says that fans should expect another serious performance from Brian Ortega this weekend.
“After that [Holloway loss], I said, ‘Oh, wow, there’s — wrestling exists. Muay Thai exists.’ I know it sounds stupid, but I had no idea none of this existed. I was training in a garage. I would just hit the bag, do a couple mitts, lift some weights, wake up. Not have no nutrition, pre-workout for breakfast. All the way until the title, that’s what people don’t understand.”
What do you think of Brian Ortega’s approach to the fight game? Let us know in the comments.
