"I was unconscious for about 30 minutes" - Brian Ortega admits brutal weight cut left him fainting and near collapse at UFC Shanghai

Brian Ortega talks about his weight miss. [Image courtesy: Getty]
Brian Ortega talks about his weight miss. [Image courtesy: Getty]

Making weight for his octagon comeback was disastrous for Brian Ortega, who recently opened up about his weight miss at UFC Shanghai, stating that it left him unconscious.

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Originally scheduled as a featherweight bout, Ortega's fight against Aljamain Sterling at UFC Shanghai last month was changed to a 153-pound catchweight matchup after 'T-City' missed weight by eight pounds. The former bantamweight champion displayed his dominance and secured a unanimous decision victory.

Ortega recently posted a video on his social media account, discussing the weight-cutting process. According to the former 145-pound title challenger, he was just 1.7 pounds short of the weight limit before fainting for half an hour. Championship Rounds shared the 34-year-old's remarks on X:

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''Thank you guys for being patient...Now we're good, we're chilling and kind of give you guys my whole experience. So cut weight on Thursday, we hit the first one. We got down to 51. Second one later on, I decided to jump the gun on that one at 12. But we cut from midnight all the way to eight in the morning...I realized I had 1.7 to go still. I'm confused on how my body wasn't really pouring out the water or why I was just holding it in...We went downstairs at about eight, ate something, decided to cut more weight.''
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He added:

''I hit 20 minutes on the bike. Once I got off, I went unconscious. I was unconscious for about 30 minutes. During that time, they were putting ice on me. They took all my, you know, my clothes off. They left me in boxers, woke up in the ER...If you saw the weigh-ins, you obviously know that I looked delirious and just coming off of being 30 minutes unconscious in the tunnel, what they say.''
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Check out Brian Ortega's comments below:

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When a former UFC referee questioned Brian Ortega's mentality

Brian Ortega put on a lackluster performance against Aljamain Sterling at UFC Shanghai, suffering a unanimous decision loss.

In an episode of the WEIGHING IN podcast last month, veteran referee John McCarthy discussed Ortega's mindset:

''Brian, what are you thinking? Are you truly, really into this?...There seems to be something that is changing…and it’s not just the competition...When you are not capable (of pulling the trigger), it becomes very difficult to win a fight. I just don’t see that same offensive aggression from him.'' [11:36 of the video]

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Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena
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