Last night, in the main event of the UFC’s long awaiteddebut in the fight hub of Fresno, California, surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega stepped into the cage for the biggest test of his career: a battle with the ever-dangerous Cub Swanson.
After a competitive first round, Ortega found the win he sought,locking up a standing guillotineas the second round wore down, and forcing the tap in the subsequent seconds.
See Ortega’s career-changing submission win in the video at the top of this article!
While Brian Ortega now stands out as one of the top contenders in the UFC featherweight division, he acknowledged post-fight that the next featherweight title shot should probably go to former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
“I want to see how Frankie Edgar is feeling,” a classy Ortega said at the UFC Fresno post-fight press conference (h/t Sherdog.com). “No disrespect to any fighter. I know this is a job; it is for me as well. I know he’s been around the game for a while and he’s had a lot of shots at the title. I feel like he deserves one more for his career. He’s done great. I’m willing to just wait. I’m gonna go with my team, get better, keep perfecting my craft and come back in 2018 and see if I can secure that belt.”
With his defeat of Swanson, Brian Ortega improved to a perfect 13-0 overall. His last five wins occurred in the UFC’s Octagon where he has scored consecutive stoppage wins over top-flight foes in Thiago Tavares, Diego Brandao, Clay Guida, Renato Moicano and now Swanson. The lone blemish on his record is a 2014 no contest with Mike De La Torre – a submission win that was overturned when he tested positive for drostanolone.
Who do you want to see Brian Ortega fight next?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/12/2017.
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.
