UFC’s Brian Ortega suffered nasty cut three weeks prior to fight

Brian Ortega had quite a lot of adversity to cope with earlier than getting into the cage at UFC Combat Evening 237.

Ortega (15-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) avenged his loss to Yair Rodriguez (18-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) by second-round submission on this previous Saturday in Mexico Metropolis.

As Bruce Buffer launched Ortega within the octagon, “T-Metropolis” jumped up and sprained his ankle within the touchdown – however that’s not the one factor he needed to fear about. His coach, Rener Gracie, revealed on Instagram that Ortega suffered a gash below his proper eye in coaching, simply weeks earlier than his combat.

“Three weeks earlier than the combat, Brian caught a nasty head butt whereas coaching @GracieUniversityHQ. Slide 2.

“It was so deep that he needed to get 4 stitches on the within and 10 on the floor. Slide 3.

“Being so near the combat we knew that one gentle punch in that area would have busted it proper open. It was our largest concern (till he rolled his ankle throughout Spherical 0 🤣).

“The day after the stitches went in, after I texted him asking if he nonetheless needed to combat, he and @mikesaffaie despatched me a video response. Slide 4.”

Ortega battled by means of adversity after a tough first spherical by which he was dropped and badly damage. He survived and rallied to submit Rodriguez with an arm-triangle choke in Spherical 2.

It was his first combat since dropping to Rodriguez in July 2022 in a bout the place he injured his shoulder.

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC Combat Evening 237.