Ray Borg’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Spree of Luck

UFC Philadelphia Ray Borg
Ray Borg Credit: Jay Anderson/Cageside Press

Ever since 2017, Ray Borg has had a very bad spree of luck, to say the least. Here’s a quick history of all that.

Ray Borg is a notable fighter for a lot of reasons, one being that he was one of the best at the UFC’s flyweight division and a former title challenger for Demetrious Johnson. However, he’s also notable for having some of the worst luck in the UFC. Following him pulling out of his fight with Ian McCall (who’s also cursed) at UFC 203, he’s had a horrible spree of bad luck. Here’s a quick history of all that has happened to ‘The Tazmexican Devil’:

As previously stated, Ray Borg pulled out of a scheduled fight with Ian McCall at UFC 203 due to illness. Following this, he was scheduled for a fight with Louis Smolka at UFC 207. Borg made it to the fight, however, he would miss weight by a whopping 3.5 pounds and lost 30-percent of his fight purse. Luckily for Borg, the fight continued and he won by decision.

Following this victory, he was set to fight Jussier Formiga in Brazil in March of 2017. He went on to win that fight. After the win, he was given a title shot and was slated to fight Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight belt at UFC 215. This is where everything would go wrong.

During UFC 215 fight week, Borg became ill. He was forced to pull out of the fight the day prior to weigh-ins and miss out on his title opportunity. Many attributed his illness to him being sick from a rough weight cut, however, he went on to make weight three weeks later when his fight against Johnson was scheduled for UFC 216. Sadly for Borg, he lost to Johnson due to one of the greatest finishes of all time, as Johnson suplexed him into an armbar to lose via submission in the fifth round.

Following this loss, he was set to fight Brandon Moreno at UFC 223. This event is notable for its insane fight week. One of the many events that happened during fight week was the notorious Conor McGregor dolly incident. McGregor and his posse invaded the Barclays Center following media day and started attacking a bus that held many of the card’s fighters, including Ray Borg.

McGregor, while throwing things at the bus, at one point picked up a dolly and chucked it at the window, shattering it and having glass fly all around the bus. As a result, Ray Borg was removed from the card after glass shards got into his eye. The fight with Moreno was then rescheduled for UFC Chile in the month following the incident. However, Borg was forced to pull out of the fight due to his son’s brain surgery.

Borg then was scheduled for a fight against Joseph Benavidez at the UFC’s 25th-anniversary show in Denver. However, once again, Borg was forced to pull out of the fight following him getting injured during training camp. Finally, Borg was scheduled for UFC Philadelphia against Pingyuan Liu for his bantamweight debut. However, Liu pulled out of the fight, and Kyler Phillips was tasked with taking the fight on short notice.

During fight week, Borg would once again have his opponent change. His new opponent was to be UFC debutant Casey Kenney. Borg would go on to shockingly miss weight against Kenney, as he missed weight by 1.75 pounds, and as a result, missed out on 20-percent of his fight purse. Following the fight, it was revealed that Borg missed weight following a late night hospital visit, following him slipping and hitting his head on the bathtub he was cutting weight in.

But finally, at long last Borg had his return to normalcy. He made his return to the Octagon after all the adversity he had faced. After all the pull-outs, injuries, weight-cutting fiascos, he was here. He was back at home, fighting, doing what he loves. After three hard-fought rounds, his fight went to a decision. Borg finally was back and showed his skills, he and many others were confident that he had won the fight.

Kenney was then declared the winner, in a fight that almost everyone thought Borg had won.