Brian Ortega Stands By Decision Not To Fight At UFC 226

Brian Ortega was supposed to battle UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway in the co-main event of UFC 226, but the bout was canned after Holloway suffered from undisclosed medical issues.

UFC President Dana White said top ranked featherweight Jeremy Stephens was constantly bothering him to fight Ortega on short notice, but Ortega turned the opportunity down.

Ortega defended his decision not to fight at UFC 226 through an Instagram post:

 

I’m a Businessman, a company man, but I’m no yes man. Watching the fights last night knowing I could have been performing for all of you truly took a toll on me. I stand by my decision. Thank you to all of you who showed up to support and respected my decision. For those of you who don’t agree with me I completely understand and promise to give you guys the show of your life when I fight for the title. #tcity

A post shared by Brian Ortega (@briantcity) on Jul 8, 2018 at 1:29pm PDT

The UFC also tried to book an interim title bout between former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and Stephens, but there wasn’t enough time to get the deal done.

There is no word when the featherweight title rematch should get booked again, but more should be known as Holloway gets further medical tests done.