Brian Ortega har sedan en tid tillbaka blivit framhållen som UFC:s nästa titelutmanare inom fjädervikt och i veckan blev det officiellt. Ortega nåddes i veckan av MMA Junkie vid ett officiellt press-event och ni kan se intervjun med honom videon ovan.
Han hade följande att säga till reportrarna om hans matchning mot fjäderviktsmästaren, Max Holloway.
I’m ready. How can I say it, man? This is something that, for the longest time, was just a vision. Now it’s actually a plan. We’re actually starting training camp for it, and it’s still surreal. It’s like, ‘Holy (expletive), I got the shot.’
Den obesegrade Ortega berättade även för reportrarna att han inte är rädd för för att förlora mot Holloway då han förlorat viktigare saker i sitt liv. Just denna inställning tror han är nyckeln till varför han 14-0 i facit:
Sometimes I felt like the pressure would be gone if I just got it out the way – if I lost, and the fans talked whatever they had to talk, made the crazy memes and just, ‘I went through that phase, and I know what that is like,’” Ortega said. “But, at the same time, I lost so many other things in my life where – that’s why I feel like I don’t care about a loss.
And that’s, I think, why I keep winning. It’s because I don’t care about it. You see me down two rounds. I just keep fighting, because I love it. And I want to finish. I’m in your face. I lost a lot of friends, I lost a lot of things in life that, to me, are far much worse than a dent on the record. Just says dash-1, you know? It just means you lost a fight. But, life in general, I lost so much other things that I don’t really care for it.
Holloway var dock nära att genomföra en titelmatch mot Khabib Nurmagomedov inom lättvikt vid UFC 223 men tvingades dra sig ur då han inte klarade viktminskningen. Resultatet av en sådan fight att hade säkerligen påverkat Ortegas möjlighet att utmana Holloway men Ortega uppger i intervjun att han inte var oroad för huruvida mästaren skulle gå matchen eller inte.
I wasn’t concerned, because I was just like, ‘He’s going to have to fight me no matter what. Now it’s just a matter of how much off time do I have? And if he did become champion, then you’re like, ‘I’ve still got a guaranteed title fight.’ Now it’s just a matter of who is it going to be against? So I wasn’t too concerned about it.
I was a little upset, because I was like, ‘His foot’s hurt. He’s not going to take it.’ And then he took it, and I was like … But I can’t hate on it. Me and (Holloway) were wanting to do the same thing a lot of fighters were not. So I took my hat off to him on that.