Brian Ortega is ready to become the next UFC featherweight champion. He’ll get the chance to earn that title when he battles reigning champ Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 231 this Saturday.
This Brian Ortega vs. Max Holloway is a tough one for many fans to predict, as both fighters have tons of momentum behind them and possess very well-rounded skillsets. Ortega believes this is why fans are likely to tune in.
“This is a matchup where our hands are both good,” Ortega said (via MMAJunkie). “He’s a top-game guy and a wrestler, and I’m a bottom-game guy, and I’m a jiu-jitsu guy. I’d watch.”
If Ortega is able able to topple Max Holloway at UFC 231, he’s hoping it will open the door to high-stakes super fights, such as a previously discussed showdown with reigning UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I’ve got these ideas that I want to go for, and if I’m successful, then hopefully I can start asking Dana White for them,” Ortega said. “It’s the super fights. Because when you look at it, you go, ‘OK, the champions are good.’ You become a champion and you do this, and then you look at it, and some of these guys that make super fights, even you, you’re like, ‘Damn, I wish I was a part of that fight.’
“I like super fights, I want super fight,” he added. “I want guys that I can match up well [with], where people don’t know what’s going to happen. Like whether the title was here or not, I feel like this (fight with Holloway) is a super fight.”
Although Ortega is thinking about the future, he isn’t taking this fight against Holloway lightly. He knows this will his toughest fight to date, but ultimately, he is confident he will keep his perfect record intact.
“I’m not picky, I’ll get it how I can take it,” he said. “Submission, KO, whatever it is, if it has me winning, I’ll take it. If I’ve got to break an arm in there and then swing it and I still win, I’ll do it. That’s how badly I want to win.”
Do you think Brian Ortega can defeat Max Holloway at UFC 231 this Saturday?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/3/2018.