Brian Ortega has gone in-depth on the injury that forced him off the UFC Busan card.
Ortega was scheduled to compete this Saturday (Dec. 21). He was set to take on Chan Sung Jung in the main event of UFC Busan. “T-City” suffered a partially torn ACL during training and was removed from the card. Frankie Edgar will serve as his replacement.
Brian Ortega Speaks On Injury
Ortega appeared on the latest edition of the UFC Unfiltered podcast. During his appearance, Ortega explained how he injured himself during sparring (via MMAFighting.com).
“It was during wrestling,” Ortega said when speaking to the “UFC Unfiltered” podcast. “It was a Friday, Thanksgiving Friday or somewhere around there and I went to spar, regular sparring, whatever did everything. I have two fresh guys every two and a half minutes, fourth round I had the second fresh guy and he went for a single leg [takedown] against the wall and I tried to get out of it.
“He hiked it up, my knee stayed against the wall, my ankle went up and I just heard a big old tear. I heard a crazy noise in it and trying to figure out what it was and he thought it was the Velcro from my shin pad. I was like no dude, that was my knee.”
Ortega said he tried to make it to the fight but he just didn’t feel the same.
“The second day I couldn’t walk and I was on crutches. After that, I was like no guys, I have to fight. I have to do this. We’re pretty much like three weeks out. I was like let’s see what we can do,” Ortega said.
“I gave myself a week and then after a week I tried training again and they’re like yeah you’re moving and yeah you’re back but this isn’t you. It’s like a 30 percent you.”
