Brian Ortega has officially apologized to Jay Park for slapping him in the face at UFC 248.
Park, who is a K-Pop star, was alongside Chan Sung Jung aka Korean Zombie where he was serving as Zombie’s translator. Previously, Ortega has said he will slap Park if he sees him, and he stuck to his word.
When Zombie went to the bathroom, Ortega got up and slapped Park. It immediately caught the attention of everyone in the section and resulted in “T-City” being escorted out.
On Monday, Ortega took to social media and explained what happened in a now deleted social media post. He said Park was not translating properly.
“When I finally made it to Korea for the press conference, TKZ approached me with his translator (a real one, not Jay Park) and said ‘I want to apologize for the trash talking, it was my management that wants to do it to promote the fight’.” Brian Ortega wrote.
Now, Brian Ortega took to Twitter to officially apologize to Jay Park. He also cemented the fact he wants to fight Korean Zombie.
”I want to officially apologize to JPark for Saturday night, when Zombie is ready we can fight,” Ortega wrote.
Brian Ortega and Korean Zombie were expected to fight one another in the main event of UFC Busan. Yet, Ortega had to pull out due to a knee injury.
Ortega has not fought since he suffered a fourth-round doctor stoppage loss to Max Holloway at UFC 231. The fight happened in December of 2018 and he has been dealing with injuries since then. It is also the only loss on his record.
Korean Zombie meanwhile, is coming off a first-round TKO win over Frankie Edgar at UFC Busan. Before that, he knocked out Renato Moicano at UFC Greenville.
An Ortega vs. Zombie fight made sense now it makes even more after this last weekend’s events.
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This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/10/2020