There’s no doubt that Brian Ortega is one of the best featherweights in the history of the UFC. The Mexican-American is as tough as it gets and has put on some of the most exciting fights in the division. He is the first fighter to hand a KO loss to Frankie Edgar, and he holds multiple wins over the likes of Cub Swanson, Renato Moicano, and Chan Sung Jung, among others.
He is all set to take on Yair Rodriguez in a rematch at UFC Mexico this weekend in Arena CDMX in Mexico City. This isn’t the first time the duo will share the cage, having come face-to-face against each other back in July 2022.
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However, ahead of the fight, many fans are going against the former two-time title challenger, who has received severe scrutiny from fans for being extremely inactive.
Moreover, the promotion has been criticized for keeping him in the top-5 all these years despite his last win in the cage coming back in 2020. He is currently ranked #4 in the UFC’s featherweight division. To put this into perspective, Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s last UFC happened after Ortega’s win over The Korean Zombie.
Brian Ortega vs Yair Rodriguez will be T-City’s fourth fight in four years
Since his first MMA loss against Max Holloway in December 2018, Ortega has only competed thrice inside the UFC Octagon. A unanimous decision win over Chan Sung Jung in October 2020, a unanimous decision loss against Alexander Volkanovski, and a TKO loss against Yair Rodriguez in his last fight, which came in July 2022.
So why is Ortega ranked so high in the UFC’s featherweight division? It’s hard to tell. With Ortega’s inactive status in his UFC career, making a case against him is challenging.
While he may not have won, Ortega has not lost to any opponent ranked lower than him. There have been similar cases in the past. Colby Covington’s example comes to mind when you think about fighters who have remained at the top of the rankings despite competing only once every year.
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It’s safe to say it’s a luxury only some fighters get to have and one that Brian Ortega enjoys. While a title shot is undoubtedly not guaranteed should he get his hands raised against Rodriguez, a loss from here could push him out of the top 5 of the featherweight division.