Brian Ortega did everything in his power to remain on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 165 card in Busan, South Korea, but it simply wasn’t meant to be.
The former featherweight title challenger revealed on the “UFC Unfiltered” podcast that he suffered a partially torn ACL in training over Thanksgiving weekend.
“It was during wrestling,” Ortega said. “It was a Friday, Thanksgiving Friday or somewhere around there and I went to spar, regular sparring, whatever did everything. I have two fresh guys every two and a half minutes, fourth round I had the second fresh guy and he went for a single leg against the wall and I tried to get out of it.
“He hiked it up, my knee stayed against the wall, my ankle went up and I just heard a big old tear. I heard a crazy noise in it and trying to figure out what it was and he thought it was the Velcro from my shin pad. I was like no dude, that was my knee.”
The injury forced Ortega to withdraw from a headlining clash against Chan Sung Jung on Saturday, but not before he attempted to work through it. However, it quickly became clear that “T-City” was a diminished version of himself.
“The second day I couldn’t walk and I was on crutches. After that, I was like no guys, I have to fight. I have to do this. We’re pretty much like three weeks out. I was like let’s see what we can do,” Ortega said. “I gave myself a week and then after a week I tried training again and they’re like ‘Yeah, you’re moving and yeah, you’re back, but this isn’t you. It’s like a 30 percent you.’”
The good news for Ortega is that he will be able to avoid surgery to repair the knee. The California native hasn’t fought since losing to Max Holloway in a featherweight title bout at UFC 231 in December 2018.
“I’m doing a lot of rehab,” Ortega said. “I’m already doing things on it. They said two more months of rehab. I’ve been rehabbing everyday. Right now, I’m pretty much doing everything I used to do but around the injury while I’m rehabbing the injury.
“I’m still keeping up my same program. I’m still eating the same things. I’m still working out. I’m still moving. The other day I woke up at 165 [pounds] still. Like my body is ready for war.”
Jung, meanwhile, will square off against replacement foe Frankie Edgar in the new UFC Fight Night 165 headliner. Ortega remains interested in a future clash with “The Korean Zombie,” but admits there are other options as well once he gets healthy.
“I think so, I think Korean’s still in the radar,” Ortega said. “There’s a couple of guys out there that pretty much – if Max and Alex Volkanovski are going to rematch each other, then it’s trying to decide who’s the next guy that fans and Dana White want to see me fight in order for me to climb my way back up and prove myself again.
“I know you have Zabit [Magomedsharipov] up there, you have ‘Korean Zombie’ right there, and everyone else is – Jose Aldo and Frankie moved down pretty much at ’35 besides him coming to save this card. So it’s really just sitting there and weighing your options and looking at who is the right fight to go forward and get after it.”