PHOTO | Coach reveals cut Brian Ortega sustained just weeks before UFC Mexico City that required “14 stitches”

Rener Gracie, the coach of Brian Ortega revealed ‘T-City’ suffered a serious cut just three weeks before his UFC Mexico City rematch against Yair Rodriguez.

Ortega was ending his year-and-a-half-long layoff in a rematch against Rodriguez in the co-main event of Saturday’s card. It was his first fight since he suffered a shoulder injury in the first Rodriguez fight, and since then he had multiple surgeries during his time off.

Then, just three weeks before his return, Brian Ortega took a headbutt in training which opened a nasty cut that required 14 stitches.

 

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🚨| Three weeks before #UFCMexico, Brian Ortega suffered a cut from a head butt that required 14 stitches, according to his coach Rener Gracie. pic.twitter.com/Mca8u1hLIv

— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) February 28, 2024

“Three weeks before the fight, Brian caught a nasty head butt while training @GracieUniversityHQ. Slide 2. It was so deep that he had to get 4 stitches on the inside and 10 on the surface. Slide 3. 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 🤣). The day after the stitches went in, when I texted him asking if he still wanted to fight, he and @mikesaffaie sent me a video response. Slide 4,” Gracie wrote about Brian Ortega’s cut.

Despite the cut requiring 14 stitches and happening so close to the fight, Brian Ortega ended up making the walk to the Octagon at UFC Mexico City against Yair Rodriguez. He ended up getting a third-round submission win to snap his two-fight losing skid and could potentially set him up for a title shot against Ilia Topuria.

“There’s some questions out there, but obviously Volk was a great champ,” Ortega said after UFC Mexico City. “For people to kick him down right now, I find it kind of disrespectful after everything he’s done. Some things have to play themselves out, and we’ll see. But if he decides that he does not want to fight and chill, I’m more than happy to go to Spain.”

With the win, Brian Ortega improved to 16-3 and one No Contest and picked up his first victory since October of 2020 when he beat Koren Zombie.