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UFC featherweight Brian Ortega is next in line for a shot at the 145-pound title. He is currently coaching on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, opposite featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Brian Ortega previously fought for the featherweight title in 2018, when he was emphatically defeated by Max Holloway. However, the loss only served to exponentially improve Ortega as a fighter, changing his entire mentality.
In a recent interview with Jim Grieshaber of MMA Weekly, Brian Ortega stated that:
"I was almost like Nate Diaz style, I was always one track minded. Like I'm gonna bang with everyone, and if we go to the ground, we go to the ground."
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Brian Ortega's changes to his fighting style
Brian Ortega's impressive durability combined with his BJJ skills meant he was perfectly happy to let fights play out in any realm of MMA. That was, at least, until he came up against Max Holloway, who is arguably one of the best strikers in modern MMA.
"I always said, if you're gonna go to war with me, you're kinda f***ed," said Ortega. "Because you have to choose your poison. If you wanna go to the ground, we can go to the ground. No problem. If you wanna stand up and bang, we can stand up and bang, no problem. Then stood up and banged and got my a** whooped."
This 'a** whooping' prompted Ortega to take a year away from MMA and honed his striking to a point where it was perfected.
"I was like alright, let's get better at banging. I can do jiu-jitsu forever. I have no problem with that. So now it was the striking aspect that I had to get better at and I had to perfect. And that's what I did."
True to his word, when Ortega returned to the octagon in October 2020, his striking looked nothing short of phenomenal. What was especially impressive was the fact that Ortega looked so sharp against an opponent with the striking credentials of Chan Sung Jung, aka 'The Korean Zombie.'
But Ortega must continue to improve as Alexander Volkanovski is arguably the most complete fighter in the featherweight division. He also defeated Max Holloway, who is the sole loss on Ortega's record, twice. Brian Ortega and Alexander Volkanovski are reportedly set to face off at UFC 266.
