Brian Ortega has done it all at featherweight—outside of capturing an undisputed UFC title—so he’s looking to new horizons. Next Saturday, Ortega fights Diego Lopes in the co-main event of UFC 303 in Las Vegas. The bout was put together on short-notice for both fighters with the top-2 fights on the card ( Conor McGregor vs.
Michael Chandler and Jamahal Hill vs. Carlos Ulberg ) falling through. According to Ortega, he wasn’t expecting his next fight to be so soon nor in the weight class he’s competed in for the majority of his career.
Ortega was actually targeting a lightweight bout at Las Vegas Sphere for September. “We talked about fighting Sept. 14 at the Sphere,” Ortega told MMA Junkie .
“That’s the only conversation I legitimately had with them that made sense. I said yes to it, they said yes to it, we all got excited, and that was kind of the works. They told that my weight class had no one really that they wanted me to fight.
They didn’t want me to fight contenders and stuff, so I decided to move to 155.” Currently No. 5 at 145 pounds in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings , Ortega finds himself in limbo when it comes to championship contention.
He’s twice challenged for the UFC featherweight title, losing to Max Holloway at UFC 231 and then Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266 . Ortega has beaten a number of ranked contenders along the way, leaving him unsure of what his options are at featherweight given that current champion Ilia Topuria appears to h.