Brian ‘T-City’ Ortega will make his long-awaited return to the octagon, after going through a self-described ‘rebirth’.
The 33-year-old is set to face Yair Rodriguez in the co-main event of Saturday’s (February 24th) fight night, with Flyweight contenders Branden Moreno and Brandon Royval squaring off in the main event of the evening.
Ortega has always been a calm and collected presence and his appearance at the UFC Mexico City media day was no different. Throughout his time away from the octagon, the word ‘rebirth’ has featured heavily in several of Ortega’s social media posts. When asked about it, ‘T-City’ disclosed an incredibly interesting reason behind the use the word.
“The rebirth. The rebirth is a nature process that the eagle goes through, and it is something that felt very close to heart for me. It was some difficult changes I had to make to my life, my personal life, to be able to really live the rest of my life the right way.
“For those that don’t know what the eagle does, the eagle lives for 70 years. At the 40-year mark, the eagle loses the sharpness of its beak, the feathers aren’t as good and the talons are weak. So it has a choice, the choice is to die, keep doing what you are doing living the way you are or isolate yourself way up in the mountains, smash your beak against a rock until it breaks. Wait ‘til it grows back, then pluck your talons out and then pluck your feathers out, then stay in isolation until everything grows back. Then when that process is done, the eagle can live the next 30 years of its life.
“That process in nature is called the rebirth for the eagle and that’s something similar I went through in my personal life. When I had to sit in isolation and face myself in a way that I never have before and I had to just pluck away and just be alone for a long time, and now I am here.”
The bout will mark Ortega’s first return to competition since he suffered a shoulder injury in the first round of the bout against Rodriguez when they met in the main event of UFC on ABC 3 in July 2022. ‘T-City- believes there isn’t a huge amount to take away from the initial contest and sees this fight as very much just a continuation of the first. He said:
“We were just started getting warmed up, we were very dry, still trying to feel each other out, got a hold of each other, hit each other a little bit, felt each other’s strength. So it was still partially in that feel out session so it’s going to be two rounds now of that feel out session and then an extra added four after that! It’s going to be a good fight.”
The contest between the pair was highly anticipated and fans will be hoping the bout doesn’t end in an unfortunate circumstance as the first did. Ortega finds it extremely interesting that he is able to run it back with Rodriguez in his returning bout.
“Yeah it was interesting, I was out for a while and finally when the doctors cleared me from everything I was able to talk to my manager and say ‘Hey man, Dr’s cleared me, we’re good to go.’ Talked to the team, I said ‘How do I look?’ everyone said ‘We’re ready.’ And then we got into negotiations and his name popped up, I said ‘Well, there we go.”
You can see Ortega’s full media day interview, here:
