Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung fight in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 39 on October 17, at TBA. It’s been a long time coming. The pair were supposed to fight in December in Korea, but Ortega suffered a knee injury. Then “The Korean Zombie” had eye surgery in February. Then Ortega slapped TKZ’s friend and manager, Korean rapper Jay Park, at UFC 258 in March. And then travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 global pandemic pushed the bout off Fight Island.
Ortega spoke recently with Farah Hannoun for MMA Junkie about the Park slapping, and more.
“Not personal at all, said Ortega of slapping TKZ’s manager. I handled my moment, I did what I did, and that was it. I don’t think about it too much. I don’t think about it on the daily. It doesn’t bother me. I don’t look at that as bad blood or anything. Like Logan Paul said, even after I did my incident, I walked past him and I was very calm. But man … talk s*** get hit. That’s where I come from. The Diaz brothers are not the only ones from a city where if you’re acting a certain way, you get slapped. As much as you grow up and try to learn things and do better, sometimes it comes out – and it came out.
It’s not too personal. It’s basically semi-personal. Usually, you sign a contract and you fight someone and you understand that that’s your opponent and you have respect for them. But me and him lost respect for each other, and now I guess if you want to call it personal, it’s personal. But it’s more of someone I don’t like that I want to hit in the face that I get to without going to jail.
A slugfest basically. Me and him kind of already have our thing where we want to hit each other in the face. So honestly, I just see a slugfest and some technical work. But yeah – we kind of don’t like each other.
From what I’ve heard, and I’ve posted on my social media and Dana White’s said it himself – he said the winner of this fight gets the shot to fight for the belt. I don’t make the rules. I don’t do nothing – it came straight from the horse’s mouth. I’ve never heard him talk about anybody else having a title shot after their fight. I heard it from this fight.
However, art UFC 254 just a week after Ortega vs. TKZ, Zabit Magomedsharipov and Yair Rodriguez fight. The title shot is likely to go the best fight of the two. What do you think UG? Who wins Ortega vs. TKZ? And is it a better fight than Magomedsharipov vs. Rodriguez?
