Brian Ortega is open to a date at UFC 226 with UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway.
Brian Ortega was the man of the evening at UFC 222 on Saturday. His big finish of Frankie Edgar stole the show. Now, he’s expecting to face UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway sometime later this year. Opponent Edgar had originally been scheduled to face Holloway, until an injury forced the champ off Saturday’s card in Las Vegas. Now, Edgar’s misfortune is Ortega’s gain.
The top featherweight discussed the possibility of a title fight following the event, at the UFC 222 post-fight press conference.
“I’ve been told,” he said in regards to a fight with champion Holloway. Still, he said, “I really want to talk to the main bosses to find out if that’s true or not before I get too excited. I don’t want to get excited and then have it get shut down and be heartbroken.”
It is, of course, the fight to make, but the in the UFC, anything can happen with title shots. “In my opinion, I feel like that should be the next fight” Ortega finished.
@Ufc 226
— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) March 4, 2018
When told that Max Holloway had tweeted out a suggestion of a fight at UFC 226, Ortega asked for the date. That card, of course, is part of International Fight Week in July. “Yeah. Sure,” was Ortega’s final answer.
The big winner from UFC 222 also told those present that the fight with Edgar was originally to be a five round main event. “Can it be done?” he then asked himself of the short notice fight. “Can I have the Brian Ortega cardio that I always have in three weeks?”
“The ultimate decision was,” he continued, “lets do the five rounds. We chose five rounds, and a week later, they said ‘you got bumped to co-main event, Cyborg saved the card'”
Still, “I was ready” for the possibility of a longer fight.
