Brian Ortega had a rough time making it back into the cage for his bout against Yair Rodriguez at UFC Mexico City. And that was before we learned of a bad cut “T-City” suffered weeks out from the fight.
Ortega didn’t hold back when discussing how difficult his two years away from the sport were as he dealt with a shoulder injury and multiple surgeries. Even stepping into the Octagon probably felt like a victory for the talented featherweight … until he rolled his ankle during Bruce Buffer’s fighter introductions.
The sudden injury led to a very bad first round against Rodriguez, but Ortega gutted through it and ended up winning via submission early in the third (watch the highlights here).
It’s the kind of resilience we’re getting used to seeing from “T-City.” And we have more of that in a new post from his coach Rener Gracie, who revealed a nasty cut under Brian’s eyebrow suffered in the weeks before the fight.
“Three weeks before the fight, Brian caught a nasty head butt while training at Gracie University HQ,” Rener wrote. “It was so deep that he had to get 4 stitches on the inside and 10 on the surface. Being so close to the fight we knew that one light punch in that region would have busted it right open. It was our biggest concern (until he rolled his ankle during Round 0).”
When Gracie asked Ortega if he wanted to pull out of the UFC Mexico City match-up, his fighter sent him a video response.
“The show continues, homie! We don’t even care,” a smiling Ortega declared. “We sweatin’, the show continues. Come on Rener. Come on, man. The show don’t stop.”
Gracie is right: one direct hit would have ripped that sucker wide open, probably ending the fight. Somehow, it survived two full rounds with Yair Rodriguez, giving Ortega the time he needed to wear “El Pantera” out and earn the submission win.
Despite all the adversity, Brian Ortega still won.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
