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“I Got Betrayed by People That Were Close to Me” – Brian Ortega Breaks Down in Emotional Confession for Wife Stephanie at UFC Mexico

Published 02/25/2024, 3:04 AM EST

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‘T-City’ was coming off a two-fight losing streak, but he has now broken it. UFC Mexico City witnessed a war between Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega. The duo went toe-to-toe for the first two rounds, however, Ortega had something else on his mind and at the start of the third round, ‘T-City’ attempted a successful arm triangle submission which earned him the win over ‘El Pantera’ and redeemed himself. However, there was a time when he was thinking about quitting fighting altogether.

Right after the fight, Full Send MMA interviewed Ortega and appreciated his performance. He was also asked how he faced the challenging scenario during his hiatus. Ortega broke down, but thanked his team and his wife, Stephanie Roberts, for always helping him when no one was around and helping him get through his hard times when no one believed in him.

‘T-City’ took the mic to appreciate all this and said, “It was rough. One thing I do wanna say is a shoutout to Henry Richard and Stephanie, my wife.” He further emphasized after the fight that his struggle got him close to God. “I will be honest with you right here. It’s been rough. I lost one of my best friends. I lost two friends after that. I got betrayed by people that were close to me.”

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He further added, “I had four surgeries back to back to back. It’s just a lot of things in my personal life, bro, and it looked dark. Bro, I know a lot of people think it’s cheesy or whatever, but when I went to church, I found God. A year ago, I was a broken man. And now, today, I’m married. I got my kids with me. God gave me my family back, and look at us, we’re doing good.” 

 

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‘T-City’ suffered a horrible loss as well as injury by the hand of Yair Rodriguez at UFC Fight Night 237 back in 2022. Ortega revealed that he had to undergo multiple surgeries to cope with the pain as well as to keep on fighting. That shoulder injury kept him away from the octagon for a long time.

At the UFC Mexico City official post-fight presser, Ortega revealed that he went through a very rough phase during his hiatus. He said, “When I was I was down and out bro. Like I was isolated, I isolated myself, I don’t want to see anyone. I stay locked up in my room, ordering uh door dash… It wasn’t a pretty man. I’ve never cried so much in front of so many people… It was a struggle not going to lie…”

Brian Ortega might be one of the best in the feathe͏rweight division, but ͏earlier he was in the mood to quit.

Ortega was in a trance after his defeat against Yair Rodriguez

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‘T-City’ is renowned for his endurance, as demonstrated in his fights against Ale͏xande͏r Volkan͏ovoski and Max Holl͏oway. However, after his recent bout against Rodriguez ͏ended in a knockout, Ortega had to reconsider if it was ͏all worth ͏it.

In a recent interview, Ortega explained that he was not sure if he wanted to continue fighting or not.“I have had this year to reflect on it where I would be lying if the questions didn’t come up: ‘Is it still worth it?’ Right, because for the first time in my life, I understood when people say, ‘I have kids – I can’t do this anymore.I used to think, “Come on, man – of course we can. We are strong mentally.” said Ortega.

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He further added “It’s not even that. The smart thing about people is some of them look at it in the long run. If I’m moving already like I’m 60 years old, how am I really going to move when I’m 60? How is it going to be on (my kids), my family? I would be lying if that thought didn’t come up after doing a tally on how many surgeries I had in total.”

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With this victory ‘T-City’ might be a little closer to a bout against Ilia Topuria. Do you think that Ortega has what it takes to beat Topuria? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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Written by:

Suryakant Das

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Suryakant Das is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. His fascination with combat sports was sparked by gleeful moments he shared with his father watching wrestling. An ardent fan of UFC star Charles Oliveira, Surya closely follows the sport and keeps tabs on behind-the-scenes action.
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Edited by:

Yeswanth Praveen