‘We should be friends’ – Brian Ortega’s wholesome moment with Max Holloway who beat him up before trying to teach him striking defence mid-fight at UFC 231

Top featherweight contender Brian Ortega is currently trying to work his way back to a title shot after twice falling short in his bid to secure UFC gold.

‘T-City’ had his moments against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266 in September 2021 but ultimately fell to a decision defeat against arguably the best fighter in MMA right now.

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The 31-year-old looked vastly improved in his second title bid, after being comprehensively beat up for the entirety of his UFC 236 fight with Max Holloway three years prior.

Ortega proved his toughness in that fight, taking an all-time record of over 300 hits – 290 of which were significant before being stopped in his corner at the end of the fourth round. 

The fight became famous for a couple of different reasons.

Firstly, ‘Blessed’ appeared to show compassion for his opponent in the fourth round, as he tried to teach Ortega how to block punches after tagging him with an extraordinary number of shots.

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The battered, bloody, and bruised Mexican-American was unable to take on board the advice but it made for a nice moment before the fight was mercifully stopped in between rounds.

After defending his title in emphatic fashion, the champion and his beaten challenger shared one of the sweetest moments of sportsmanship in UFC history.

“Brian, I love you,” Holloway told Ortega who rose to his feet to address the man who had just beat the snot out of him for 20 minutes.

“We should be friends, probably. We can be friends for sure,” Holloway added before the pair embraced.  

After taking a couple of years off from the sport following that fight, Ortega returned and looked better than ever as he coasted to a decision win over ‘The Korean Zombie’ in October 2020.

This win earned him another title shot, this time at Volkanovski who had gone on to dethrone Holloway and defend his belt against the former champion in an immediate rematch.

Ortega once again took a lot of damage in a championship fight but he also came close to winning the fight, as he locked up two of his signature submissions – only for ‘The Great’ to ultimately wriggle his way out of them and pick up a decision win.

Ahead of his fight with Yair Rodriguez in New York this weekend, the 31-year-old feels confident that he is the best of the rest at 145lbs and more than worthy of another title shot if he beats ‘El Pantera’.

“I feel like from what the world’s seeing is he’s [Alexander Volkanovski] won the belt, he’s defended the belt, and the one person that gave him the hardest time was me,” Ortega told Inside Fighting.

“I just put him in the most danger and people noticed that people saw. I’m just a deadly opponent for him. Obviously, I’m always gonna train to win, to fight this guy and beat this guy. I believe I have the tools and capabilities to do so if I play my cards right.”

The UFC on ABC 3 main event is a high-stakes match-up for the 145lb division. While Rodriguez has been guaranteed a title shot if he wins, a victory for Ortega could lead to Volkanovski testing the waters at lightweight.