Brian Ortega Reveals Detailed Experience After Fainting During Weight Cut
UFC featherweight Brian Ortega has confirmed that he fainted and woke up in the emergency room during his weight cut at last month’s UFC Fight Night in Shanghai.Ortega (16-5) was originally scheduled to face Aljamain Sterling (24-5) in a co-main featherweight (145-pound) event, but the fight was changed to a catchweight of 153 pounds after Ortega missed weight. The former title contender, on two occasions, looked emaciated and unsteady on the scales, and ultimately lost all five rounds to Sterling.
In a social media post, Ortega revealed the severity of the problems he faced when trying to make weight, including fainting for a prolonged period on Friday morning.Ortega, 34, has considered a possible permanent weight change for over a year, but has yet to schedule a lightweight fight in the UFC. He was forced to withdraw from a short-notice fight against Diego Lopes in 2024 due to medical issues related to his weight cut. According to Ortega, the UFC had a replacement opponent for him in Shanghai, but he stood firm on taking the fight despite the complications with the weight cut. “[Sterling told me], ‘they have a replacement fighter, don’t worry’, but I told him, ‘no, I don’t want to waste your time'”, Ortega said. “We ate. We rehydrated all day. I didn’t feel good, I wanted to cancel it. Just walking outside, I almost passed out. Everything in my body was telling me not to fight. First and foremost, I decided to fight for my family. That’s my job, to show up and do what I do for them. Secondly, I fought for you [the fans].”“I was on the bike for 20 minutes and once I got off, I lost consciousness,” Ortega said. “I was unconscious for about 30 minutes. During that time, they put ice on me, took off all my clothes, left me in my underwear. I woke up in the emergency room, I took everything off, I couldn’t really speak, translate to them. I told them, if you don’t take everything off, I’ll take it off myself. We knew we had a time limit to get to the weigh-in, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to fight. If you saw the weigh-in, you obviously know that I looked delirious and fresh out of 30 minutes of being unconscious in the tunnel. After that, I weighed in. We thought that if I didn’t feel good or if something was wrong, we would cancel the fight.”
Brian Ortega
