The Riverside Press-Enterprise
UFC'S Ortega faces Rodriguez with momentum in his corner
One can attempt to explain the fate of two fighters, each with a life built on challenges and heartache, finding each other in this crazy world and becoming soulmates.
For Brian Ortega and Tracy Cortez, they say they complete each other’s puzzle.
And then there’s something to be said of the career paths of two fighters, each wildly popular and climbing the UFC’S 145-pound rankings, finally becoming opponents.
For Ortega and Yair Rodriguez, today’s UFC on ABC 3 main event in Elmont, New York, has been a long time coming for two of the fight promotion’s most exciting top featherweights.
“I didn’t sign up for any easy fights, you know?” Ortega said. “In my career, I’ve never had nothing easy.”
This summer, it has been nothing but work for Ortega. That means no acting, just training. Before that, life continued to improve for the 31-year-old San Pedro native.
He had gone from paying a lease to separating from the mother of his children to crashing at a friend’s place. But with Cortez in the picture for more than the past year and a half, Ortega knew that had to change — “I’m not young anymore, it was like, ‘Am I man enough for this girl?’” — and got an apartment.
In January, he was on a real estate app and saw a South Bay home that had been on the market for an hour. He drove over, knocked on the door and bought it. Simple as that.
“I just made it a point to go there ASAP and let her know that I wanted it. And then she was like, ‘Well, what’s stopping you?’ And I go, ‘Honestly, you. Just tell me I can buy it and I’ll buy it,’” Ortega said.
Soon after, the fighter turned his attention toward helping Cortez prepare for her May 7 flyweight bout at Footprint Center in her hometown of Phoenix against Melissa
UFC ON ABC 3
Main event:
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Gatto at UFC 274.
And while Cortez says it’s inevitable for them to help coach each other when they are in camp, she threw Ortega a curve when just two days before her fight she asked him to be in her corner. After all, everyone noticed how remarkably in tune she was with his voice during sparring sessions.
“It’s not an emotional thing, where it’s like, ‘Oh, it’ll be cute to have him,’ you know? Because I do take my career very seriously, extremely seriously,” Cortez said in a phone interview. “And last thing I want someone to think is that I don’t. And it was one of those things where it was like, not to be a cute couple, you know?
“It was more like, you’ve seen me my entire camp. You’ve coached me, you were there. And every sparring session, you were there. And every breakdown, you were there. Every time I messed up, you were there when I corrected it.”
Ortega had coached and cornered friends and fellow fighters before, but none had as great a priority as this one.
“It wasn’t my first rodeo. But to me it was one of the most important rodeos,” he said.
Cortez, 28, overcame depression after the death of her older brother Jose, an up-and-coming MMA fighter, from cancer in 2011. She had manifested her dreams by turning pro in 2017 and winning her way into the UFC.
And when Cortez emerged with a unanimous-decision victory over Gatto for her fourth consecutive UFC victory, Ortega was over the moon.
Said Ortega: “I told her, ‘Your win is my win and my win is your win. And to see you fight there and ... that’s similar to me fighting at Staples Center in front of everyone, and you got to do that. I’ve never done that. I’m so happy for you. And I’m so stoked.’”
Now it’s Ortega’s turn. He is coming off a unanimous-decision loss to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266 in September, one in which Ortega had Volkanovski in a world of trouble with a guillotine choke in the second round, mere seconds from reaching the pinnacle of a lifelong dream.
Only for Volkanovski to somehow slip out of the hold, meaning for 10 months Ortega has had to listen to people from all walks of life tell him how close he had come to becoming a champion.
The compartmentalization required to cope with such a difficult loss, Cortez says, is something that perhaps only those competing would understand.
“It’s hard for anybody, especially when you pour your heart out the way he did, to lose knowing that you almost had it. So he has to go through that,” Cortez said. “He’s going through the emotions, and in the midst of all that, he also has to understand that, and he does understand, ‘I’m a father.’ Because they do come first. He has to be there for his kids. He can’t pout, you know? Yeah, so it is a hard balance.”
Rodriguez (14-3, 1 NC) poses a challenging fight for Ortega (15-2, 1 NC) but also a promising one on a national network (ABC) between two proud Mexican warriors. Rodriguez has eight Fight Night bonuses to Ortega’s seven.
While Ortega, an American of Mexican descent, and Rodriguez, a native of Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, will fight each other Saturday, it won’t be as enemies. Ortega says they have hung out and get along well. But with both coming off losses — Rodriguez in November lost a unanimous decision to former champ Max Holloway, the only other fighter to defeat Ortega — and Ortega ranked No. 2 to Rodriguez’s No. 3, their time is now.
Though willing to trade and bang, Ortega could put his elite jiu-jitsu into play against an opponent with an arsenal as versatile as one could expect that might also play into Ortega’s array of submissions.
“Unorthodox. Very wild. Unpredictable. And he doesn’t back out, you know? He’s a fighter,” Ortega said. “Yeah, he don’t back out. That (dude’s) game.”
With a victory, Rodriguez says he has been told he will receive a title shot against Volkanovski, who just capped his trilogy with Holloway with a dominant decision victory on July 2. Ortega says he has not been promised a third crack at a championship, but he wouldn’t be surprised.
“I’m sure it’s right there,” Ortega said.