It looked like disaster struck for Brian Ortega again but this time he somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
After his previous encounter with Yair Rodriguez ended when he suffered a freak shoulder injury, Ortega had to feel snake-bitten when he jumped in the air during his introduction and actually rolled his ankle after an awkward landing. Things didn’t get much better when the action started as Rodriguez began battering him with strikes and there were a couple of moments where it looked like the fight might be over.
Instead, Ortega showed incredible resilience and heart to survive the onslaught before turning to his grappling game. Once Ortega dragged Rodriguez to the canvas, he took over and that included the moment when he snatched an arm-triangle choke in the third round to get the tap in the UFC Mexico City co-main event.
It was an awe-inspiring performance in Ortega’s first fight back in nearly two years as he takes out Rodriguez and puts himself right back near the top of the featherweight division.
“Right when they were introducing us, I jumped up and I rolled my ankle and I freaked out,” Ortega said about the moment before the fight started. “[Once I got that arm-triangle choke] it’s a wrap. I’ve been training super hard. I got my life together. I’m not being an idiot anymore. This is what we did. We trained non-stop for three months.”
The end was much better than the start after Rodriguez drew first blood when he blasted Ortega with a stiff left hook that dropped him to the canvas. Rodriguez followed up with a flurry of shots but Ortega managed to get back to his feet, although he was wearing some serious damage on his nose.
Rodriguez continued his assault with several hard kicks including one to the body that had Ortega wincing in pain. Still, Ortega persevered and continued to hang around until he actually ended up in a grappling exchange with Rodriguez late in the opening round where he took the mount just before the horn sounded.
As the second round got underway, Ortega turned the tables on Rodriguez after the fight hit the floor again but he had a lot more time to get some work done. Ortega dropped bombs from the top with punches and elbows including a shot that opened a cut underneath Rodriguez’s right eye that also resulted in significant swelling.
Realizing he had a significant advantage on the ground, Ortega went right back to his grappling at the start of round three except he rolled right into the arm-triangle choke after tossing Rodriguez to the canvas. Ortega locked up the submission and it didn’t take long for Rodriguez to realize he wasn’t breaking free.
The tap came at just :58 seconds into the third round.
The miraculous comeback caps off back-to-back fights with Rodriguez but the rematch obviously went much better than the first for Ortega. As far as what comes next now that he’s injected himself into title contention with the win, Ortega is holding his cards close to the vest.
“We’ll see,” Ortega said. “I see the boss Dana [White] right there. We’ll talk later.”