{"id":896397,"date":"2026-09-15T07:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/896397\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T07:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:40:10","slug":"brian-ortega-reacts-to-last-second-ufc-331-pullout-this-one-hurts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/896397\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Ortega reacts to last-second UFC 331 pullout: \u2018This one hurts\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Brian Ortega was supposed to make his long-awaited UFC Lightweight debut this weekend (Sat., Sept. 19, 2026) at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/462735\/ufc-331-fight-card-start-time-date-location-van-vs-pantoja-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 331<\/a> in his home city of Los Angeles, California opposite former foe Renato Moicano. After a rough stretch in the last few years that saw him lose four of five fights and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/392714\/brian-ortega-breaks-silence-30-minute-coma-iv-tearing-uber-ride-ufc-shanghai-weigh-ins\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nearly die cutting weight<\/a>, the hope was that a move up to 155 pounds could rejuvenate his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Instead, Ortega was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/472435\/injured-brian-ortega-pulled-from-ufc-331-money-paid-with-halloween-main-event-at-apex\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forced to withdraw<\/a> on Monday. Initially, the exact reason for his withdraw was unclear, but pictures of Ortega with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/post\/9Z2hkIsBA62c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a bandage on his eyebrow<\/a> certainly seemed to offer an explanation. Shortly afterward, Ortega took to social media to clear the air, as well as offer insight into his fighting future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThis one hurts,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DdSmedzlEAZ\/?stkn=MW5iMWY1enQzaWQwdw%3D%3D&amp;img_index=4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ortega wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cI have to pull out of the fight because of the stitches in my eye. I\u2019m on weight, I\u2019ve been training my ass off, and this has honestly been one of the best camps I\u2019ve ever had. I was really looking forward to fighting at home in Los Angeles in front of my family, friends, and everyone who\u2019s been supporting me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cMy next fight is in soon, so I\u2019m getting right back to training. We\u2019ve brought some new people into camp and I\u2019m excited to show you guys a new side of me. Thank you to everyone who\u2019s been supporting me through all of this. I\u2019ll see you guys in November.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Renato Moicano has already received his new matchup: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/472435\/injured-brian-ortega-pulled-from-ufc-331-money-paid-with-halloween-main-event-at-apex\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Halloween main event<\/a> versus rising Aussie Tom Nolan. As for Ortega, it sounds like \u201cT-City\u201d will be back in action in November and presumably already has an opponent in mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Hopefully, there won\u2019t be any more fight week mishaps.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Ortega was supposed to make his long-awaited UFC Lightweight debut this weekend (Sat., Sept. 19, 2026) at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-896397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}