Brian Ortega believes that his fight against Max Holloway at UFC 226 for the featherweight title is the biggest in the division’s history since Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo in 2015.
At the time the UFC threw a ton of promotion into the fight, which at the time was arguably the biggest in the promotion’s history. The fight left fans feeling a bit underwhelmed, however, as McGregor starched the Brazilian in only 13 seconds to become the second man to ever hold UFC featherweight gold.
McGregor has since departed from the division and Holloway reigns as the new king at 145 pounds. Ortega comes off a massive first round knockout victory over Frankie Edgar that earned him the nod for the featherweight crown next. The pair will square off in the co-main event of UFC 226 on July 7th.
T-City recently made an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show to discuss his title fight against The Blessed One and explain why he thinks it’s the biggest since McGregor and Aldo’s phenomenon (via MMA Mania):
“From what I have seen, I feel like this is going to be the biggest fight in featherweight history since Conor and Aldo. If you look at it as in terms of the biggest fight, I feel this will be the biggest since then. I feel like he’s fought the same guys I fought except for Frankie. He beat Aldo twice.
“These guys are from a different generation, right. I feel like these guys are the beginning of the featherweight division, and now I fought against a veteran and he fought Aldo and he was against a veteran. Now you truly have two young guys who are at their peak of their prime, at the top of their level and we are going to fight each other.
“For me this is exiting because I come in here in this game to test myself. And right now I’m competing against the best guys in the featherweight division. Now I’m sitting as the No. 1 contender. There is no other way to put than you are going to have two real hungry guys, one is hungry to keep it and the other is hungry to take it.
“There’s nothing else to it man except that the fireworks show is’t going to be on fourth of July but on the seventh of July.”
Do you think Holloway vs. Ortega is the biggest fight in the UFC featherweight division’s history since McGregor vs. Aldo? Let us know in the comments!
