Brian Ortega doesn’t see a ton of upside in his battle towards Diego Lopes, no less than seemingly not sufficient to get him one other UFC title shot.
Ortega (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC), a two-time UFC title challenger at featherweight, returns Saturday on the primary card of UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas. He takes on Lopes (25-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC), a rising star within the division who’s develop into one of many hottest names within the sport. “T-Metropolis” thinks a win for Lopes will seemingly get him a crack on the belt, however he’s not so assured the identical is in play if he wins.
“We’ll see … we’ll see,” Ortega advised MMA Junkie in Spanish when requested if he expects a title shot win a win on Saturday. “The UFC has its personal opinions on his rating, and I feel this battle has extra of an upside for him than for me.
“If he beats me, they’ll say he’s the following huge factor and will likely be going for the title and all that. I’ve clearly fought for the title twice already, and I wasn’t in a position to win, in order that modifications issues with the UFC.”
So why did Ortega take the battle to start with? The 2 have been scheduled to satisfy on quick discover at UFC 303 in June, however hours away from the occasion, Ortega was pressured to tug out as a consequence of sickness. Lopes ended up preventing and defeating Dan Ige on hour’s discover.
It was an enormous tease for the MMA world, and as soon as Ortega noticed the hype across the battle together with the frustration of it falling via, he purchased extra into the thought.
“In case you have a look at it like a enterprise, not, ‘Oh I simply battle towards anybody,’ it doesn’t make sense on your profession,” Ortega mentioned. “Try to be preventing upwards, not downwards. This battle wasn’t in my thoughts, however we noticed what occurred: Two fighters bought injured, we stepped in, and I couldn’t battle. Now, after that, the speak began, and I even started telling myself, ‘You understand what, this isn’t that dangerous of an concept now that each one of this occurred.’ I’ve been seeing the feedback and this can be a very fashionable battle everybody needs to see.
“On the finish of the day, this may not be what’s finest for enterprise, however that is why I bought into the game – to have badass fights that everybody will like. Who doesn’t wish to battle with out the speak and all of the bullsh*t? We’re simply preventing, and that’s it.”
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