UFC featherweight Brian Ortega has confirmed he passed out and woke up in an emergency room during his weight cut at UFC Fight Night last month in Shanghai.
Ortega (16-5) was originally scheduled to face Aljamain Sterling (24-5) in a 145-pound featherweight co-main event, but the contest was changed to a 153-pound catchweight after Ortega weighed-in heavy. The former two-time title challenger looked gaunt and unsteady on the scale, and went on to lose all five rounds to Sterling on the judges' scorecards. In a social media post on Tuesday, Ortega revealed the severity of the issues he faced trying to make weight, including passing out for an extended amount of time on Friday morning.
"I hit 20 minutes on the bike and once I got off, I went unconscious," Ortega said. "I was unconscious for about 30 minutes.
"During that time, they were putting ice on me, they took all my clothes off, they left me in boxers. I woke up in the E.R., I ripped everything off, I couldn't really speak, translate to them. I was like, if they don't take everything off, I'm going to take it off myself. We knew we had a time limit to get to the weigh-ins, otherwise I could not fight. If you saw the weigh-ins, you obviously know I looked delirious and just coming off 30 minutes of being unconscious in the tunnel. After that, I weighed-in. We figured if I didn't feel good or if something was seriously off, we would call the fight."
Ortega, 34, has eyed a potentially permanent move up in weight for more than a year, but has yet to book a lightweight fight in the UFC. He was forced to pull out of a short-notice bout against Diego Lopes in 2024, due to medical issues regarding his weight cut.
According to Ortega, the UFC had a replacement opponent on deck for him in Shanghai, but he remained adamant about taking the fight despite the weight cutting complications.
"[Sterling told me], 'they have a replacement fighter, don't worry about it,' but I told him, 'nah, I don't want to waste your time,'" Ortega said. "We ate food. We rehydrated the entire day. I didn't feel good, I wanted to call it off. Just walking outside, I almost passed out and fainted. Everything in my body is telling me not to fight. First and foremost, I decided to fight for my family. That's my job, to show up and do what I do for them. Secondly, I fought for you guys [the fans]."