Brian Ortega has been out of the spotlight for a while recovering from multiple surgeries, but that all ends on February 24th when he rematches Yair Rodriguez in Mexico City.
Yair was the one Brian injured his shoulder against two long years ago. Since then, “T-City” had to undergo an intense sounding ‘rebirth process’ to prepare himself for the next phase of his career.
“The rebirth is a nature process that the eagle goes through, and it’s something that felt very close to heart for me,” Ortega said during UFC Mexico City media day. “It’s some difficult changes that I had to make in my life, my personal life, to be able to really live the rest of my life the right way.”
“So I had a choice,” he continued. “The choice is to die, keep doing what you’re doing and living the way you are. Or isolate yourself way up in the mountains, smash your beak against a rock until it breaks, wait until it grows back, then pluck your talons out, and then pluck your feathers out, and then stay in isolation until everything grows back. Then when that process is done, the eagle can live the next 30 years of its life.”
“That’s something similar that I felt that I went through in my personal life, where I had to sit in isolation and face myself in a way that I never have before. And I had to just pluck away and be alone for a long time, and now I’m here.”
That’s a pretty intense sounding process. Ortega has been open with media about the struggles he went through to rehab his injuries and the depression he battled along the way. Now he has a chance to soar again, and we’re looking forward to seeing how the top featherweight contender looks after his time up in the metaphorical mountains.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
