“Intense fights that everyone will enjoy”

Brian Ortega does not see any major advantages in his fight against Diego Lopes, at least probably not enough to secure another fight for the UFC title.

Ortega (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC), a two-time UFC featherweight title challenger, returns on Saturday on the main card of UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. He faces Lopes (25-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC), a rising star in the division who has become one of the hottest names in the sport. “T-City” believes a win for Lopes will likely earn him a shot at the belt, but he's not so confident that's possible even if he wins.

“We'll see… we'll see,” Ortega told MMA Junkie in Spanish when asked if he expected a win in Saturday's title fight. “The UFC has its own opinion on his ranking and I think this fight has more advantages for him than for me.”

“If he beats me, they'll say he's the next big star and he'll fight for the title and so on. Of course, I've fought for the title twice before and couldn't win, so that changes things in the UFC.”

So why did Ortega accept the fight in the first place? The two were scheduled to meet at UFC 303 in June, but Ortega had to withdraw due to illness just hours before the event. Lopes ended up fighting and defeating Dan Ige within an hour.

It was a big taster for the MMA world and when Ortega saw the hype surrounding the fight and the disappointment of its failure, he became even more convinced of the idea.

“If you look at it like a business and you don't think, 'Oh, I'll just fight anyone,' then it doesn't make sense for your career,” Ortega said. “You should fight to the top, not to the bottom. I didn't have this fight in mind, but we saw what happened: two fighters got hurt, we stepped in and I couldn't fight. After that, the talks started and I even started saying to myself, 'You know what, this isn't such a bad idea now that all this has happened.' I saw the commentary and this is a very popular fight that everyone wants to see.

“At the end of the day, it might not be the best thing for business, but that's why I got into the sport – to have cool fights that everyone likes. Who doesn't want to fight, without the talk and all that nonsense? We just fight, and that's all.”

For more information on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.