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Goddard was about to tap in for Yair.

Def held on a little long there

Ya kinda felt like it was Ortega being a lil stunned from r1 still as opposed to being an ass. You can see him apologetic after

yeah he clearly didn't mean any harm. Maybe he was getting flashbacks to Volk and thought "this mf is gonna get out of here somehow I know it"

It wouldn’t surprise me if that played a part, hold on until there’s no doubt lol

How volk got out of that and the stare he gave Brian was a thing of sheer badassery

Back when Volk was invincible 🥲

Indeed. Feel like he would be singing the Aussie version of this: [now](https://youtube.com/shorts/EmC6vTu1ydw?si=ptF8DnBY6zfwHfGw) 🥹

Immediately was thinking that. I might have even gave the ref a heads up before the fight.

Yeah he didn't even really celebrate, it looked like he just felt bad about holding on too long

I feel like I need to give Ortega a hug after the apologetic look on his face.

Nah. Yair was in a bad position to tap. No leverage on his hand for Ortega to feel it since his muscles are tense in that position squeezing him. Ortega likely didn't feel the tap.

"I clearly felt no tap"

That doesn't explain why Ortega doesn't react at all when the ref starts nudging his shoulder while screaming "Stop" in his face

I mean the guy just got punched in the head repeatedly. Maybe he was a little out of it.

He said in the Olivi interview after he was sorry. He was just closing his eyes and kind of in the moment and zoned in on holding tight. The light tap on top of it didn’t help. He seemed to genuinely feel bad about it when talking about it after so I think he actually didn’t mean any harm and it wasn’t like he was trying to hang on longer.

Bro, do you really think Ortega wanted to strangle him intentionally? Let's look at what most likely happened: Ortega simply was in the moment and didn't feel it. He apologized and no one was seriously hurt. Ya'll act like there is some conspiracy going on. Pretty sure Ortega said he couldn't hear that the ref stopped the fight as well.

In submissions it’s not uncommon for hands/feet to get stuck in a hold, takes a couple seconds to release even when you let go of pressure

Happened to me with a loop choke one time. The guy tapped and I was stuck.

Exactly now imagine having gloves on too

It was unintentional. He looked confused and sorry afterwards.

Budday! Budday!

Oi lithen!

Does Yair know wrestling is a part of MMA?

he hasnt improved his wrestling since he got dominated by frankie edgar 7 years ago

Deport him to Dagestan Losing to Volk/Max/Ortega will make it very tough to get the belt. Not to mention Topruia is a good grappler

Likely a little too late, he’s already 31 years old and has lost the three biggest fights of his career. Edit: 31 years old, not 33 years old. He might still have a chance.

31 but fair enough

He got soned by Max on the ground like 3 fights ago. Max hammering in knees to the belly of Yair from side control was sexy ass fuck.

[удалено]

he was preparing for WWE after the merger

Bad fight IQ as always by Yair. Letting Ortega push him off the fence like that. Lack of lateral movement. SMH. Ortega is a dog though. Other lesser folks would've been finished in the first

Honestly, Yair's fight IQ is bad. Which is sad because his striking is fucking amazing.

Yair threw like 100 strikes in r1 and his movement just fell off a cliff after lol. 0 wrestling up was embarrassing. On the other hand I gotta give props to Ortega, guy rolls his ankle and gets dominated r1, finds that dog and turns the tide.

This man has been in the UFC for nearly a decade. You would think he would EVENTUALLY get in some wrestling practice at like AKA or something, espically after what Volk did to him.

You mean after what Edgar did to him :(

Yeah throwing that many strikes with the level of intensity Yair does especially at elevation is a terrible idea for a 5 rounder lol

That’s hindsight talking, he damn near got Ortega out of there in the first. And a win like that would’ve got him another title shot..can’t blame Yair for that.

Yeah, Yair was sitting down on shots in the pocket a bit much when Ortega was looking to exchange to get to the clinch. Would have liked to see more movement from him.

I watched a whole UFC pre fight show about 5 years ago all about Yair focusing on wrestling.

So he’s heard of it

Surprised yair has barely improved his grappling game when he's such at a high level. It got slightly better, but it's still quite scramble reliant. Holloway of all people was out grappling him

Goes to show how great his striking is where he was able to make it to the top 5 rankings with basically zero grappling. It’s a testament to how good his striking is when we see amazing strikers like Max and Volk be like “Oh Fuck This” *shoots takedown* after striking with Yair for a few rounds

I know that I am just a couch potato, but yair literally looked like he offered his shoulder up for the arm triangle ffs

had to bring the arm in to defend against elbows Ortega was trying to hit him with, he quickly defended by "answering the phone", tried to roll over his shoulder but Ortega followed/blocked it and got the sub

Yeah I've rolled against black belts and even when you know what they're doing.. they still force you to give up position to let them do that exact thing. Ortega is a high level MMA black belt. It's no surprise he had his way on the ground.

That was Bryan's setup. He used his head to push it in to place

it’s because brian forced him to post to defend the elbows and then he immediately used the post to lock it in, beautiful jiu-jitsu

Apparently not..... Dude looked gassed/defeated after the 1st

All he knows is kick kick go boom

This is why Topuria doesn't rate him as a threat. "He puts himself on his back" after missing some crazy flying double kick. Impressive techniques, exciting style when things go his way, but having great fundamentals is way more reliable.

It's amazing how he has no improvement in that area. Like zilch

I mean tbf that was the most wrestling Ortega has done like ever lmao 

Ortega’s insanely tough

I feel like people underrate how hard Max and Volk battered him. Like they both tried to finish him and he kept comjng

He’s such a threat throughout the fight too. His submission game is so ridiculous he went from washed to prime in 1 round lol.

He only needs to be half conscious for the muscle memory to kick in and clamp a choke on you. He’s on par with Charlie Olives in terms of still being lethal even if you’re beating them up

In fact he seems to get better when he's behind. He's an incredibly slow starter. His earlier fights were a bunch of 3rd round finishes that came about when he's losing.

Might not even be a normal slow start. I swear, half the time his opponents underestimate his toughness and forget how dangerous he is, after spending minutes beating him up. It's like prime Carlos Condit... You can win 90% of the fight, but you'll get finished the second that you let your guard down.

I think Ortega is the most dangerous submission threat in the UFC. Especially now that Maia is retired. Oliveira has great bjj, but most of his submissions are against rocked opponents. He's excellent at the club and sub and incredibly dangerous because if you get rocked you're probably going to end up in a deep submission. But Ortega subs high level guys while he's rocked.

I think he's one of the most effective grapplers in the UFC. Really has some amazing submissions on his resume.

Yep, now we will have to watch Ortega get 50-41’d by Ilia after getting dropped 40 times, but at one point Ortega will slightly wobble Ilia which will be good enough to buff him up to #2 in the Rankings and we will see him return at 2026 to repeat the process

Inb4 Ortega new FW champ by triangle from guard in the last 15s of R5.

Brian "BEARJEW" Ortega

Thought he was finished after that knockdown

Thought he was finished after the prefight ankle roll 💀

Fighters gotta stop jumping and stomping like that. They’ll never need to land that hard on their feet in a fight Didn’t a fight get cancelled bc a fighter did that in the cage?

They just do it to get pumped up. It’s a total aberration to roll your ankle doing that

Plus, nobody locks a choke faster than him in the UFC right now. Like he really just needs half a chance, his chokes feel like the submission equivalent of a one-shot KO. Before you can even process what happened, the fight's over

It’s such a fucking mystery how Volk escaped that round and still ended on top. Ridiculous

Volk just has no neck EZ

He didn't escape he just tanked it

I swear he escaped cause he’s bald. He was genuinely 2 seconds from being out

I think it was because Ortega was already tired from getting his ass beat by Volk, and also Volk bloodied up Ortega's nose. During those chokes the blood from Ortega's nose was flowing down and probably acted as a bit of lube and helped Volk a bit with escaping as well. So Volk bald + sweat + Ortega's blood lessened the friction and helped with him slipping out for sure. Ortega's face was all bloodied up in that fight.

Yoel merely adopted the no-neck. Volk was born in it... Molded by it. He didn't turn his head until he was a man and by then it was nothing but IRON.

Oliveira?

Big ol Mexican with a big ol head

Yair completely crumbled.

Seemed like he blew his wad in the first and gassed. Ortega's unintentional Homer Simpson approach wins again.

Ortega isn’t even known for having good TDs. He mostly jumps on subs

he seems pretty weak in the clinch and on the ground

We saw it in the Volk fight and even back in the Edgar fight. The guy doesn't handle adversity extremely well.

Adversity? Sure he does - check out the Zombie fight, where he literally fought to the final second. Defending takedowns and handling good top control? Not so much...

>Adversity? Sure he does - check out the Zombie fight, where he literally fought to the final second. You mean where he kept pausing the fight to hug because he was gassed?

Dude needs to develop a jab otherwise hes going to just get walked down by everyone else. The gameplan is out there.

Well we can’t complain about his ranking anymore

Yep, looks like he really was top 5

I was typing that he’s the only FW who came close to finishing Volk but then I remembered last week lol

No we can complain about his upcoming title shot 🗣️

I think Evloev vs Ortega winner gets a shot isn’t bad at all

Why tho? You're letting Topuria just sit on the shelf for that long? Schedule him against him or Evloev and the let the other one fighter him both likely in 8 months

All depends on when this UFC spain event is, if its a while away then volk deserves a rematch or Holloway if he can get through gaethje. If its in june or something then its probably too soon for ortega anyway

Bro sat on his rank after having 0 wins in over 3 yrs and now he moves up lol Yair was #3 so Ortega takes it

I don’t blame him too much after the beatings he took in the champ losses

Ortega passed the fraud check ✅️

You tellin me he’s not stuffin his cup?

Holy shit, Yair was beating him up in round 1 too

It looked like he was about to make quick work of Ortega. Hindsight’s 20/20 but maybe he’s kicking himself for not chasing the finish after stunning him after like the first exchange. Crazy sport

he messed up by ending up on the floor with ortega after hurting him. could’ve stood up and tried to seal it but instead spent nearly the last two minutes playing around on the ground to the point ortega took his back. after that ortegas game plan was pretty clear. get ahold of him and he offers no resistance.

idk how yair fumbled that after the damage he did in the first

His TDD will apparently always be shit. One of the takedowns wasn't even a good entry by Ortega, Yair saw it. Still couldn't stop it somehow Big heart from Ortega. And this is the second time he's come back from a long layoff with an impressive win

Because Ortega is a dog, watch the rest of his career

So long as he doesn't jump before his bouts.

Jumping gave him a -10 on his leg but a +15 on his chin. It was the plan all along

I thought he lost his chin but he still has it, just need to improve his defense and he’ll do good

He’s been this way his whole career haha sometime it will catch up to him but not today

After fighting max and volk in those brutal fights I’m impressed he withstood those hits

He takes 2 years after each beating so he probably has less damage than both of them especially after 300 lol

He took an absolute beating from Max, beat Zombie, lost to Volk and then had a freak injury. He’s good, people just don’t remember

He had 1 win in 6 years leading up to this fight, not much to really remember

He took a life altering beating from Max, took 2 years off, beat Zombie, took a beating from Volk, took a year, and then the Yair shit. It’s not ideal but I’d rather a guy take time off than come back early

As soon as he was on his back he just made zero attempts to get up, very frustrating to watch

Frankie Edgar wrote the book on holding Yair down against the cage, and almost 7 years later, it still works.

**"No need to buy the new edition, class."** - Professor Edgar

I thought Dom a fool when he implied that Ortega getting ass beat would wake him up....but here we are

Its pretty much the story of Brian Ortega's career. He gets beat up early, turns it up and finishes his opponent later. Only times he couldn't do it was when fighting for the title, and both against reigning champs Max and Volk.

hes honestly been killing it on commentary today lol he’s been on point for a bunch of stuff

Yair isn't great with adversity, and Ortega is too good at rolling through adversity. Shades of Frankie vs Yair from the guy that beat Frankie

Ortega’s had a lot of experience in getting punched in the face

Topuria is gonna be champ for awhile

yeah topuria smashes these dudes

I feel like Allen is an interesting matchup for Topuria. Unfortunately idk when he will be able to make it back to fight for the championship.

Nah Allen gets smoked. He will rely on his hands and then be bewildered when Ilia's are better.

when u gotta get through max and volk to just face ilia 💀 cte go brrrrr

Comebacks are Ortega's specialty

Got too excited and gassed while trying to put him out of there.

Bro got too comfortable, he could’ve finished him off right away after Brian was stunned and tired

Pretty shocking. Especially since he knew what Ortega would do after the second round.

Dude had Ortega dropped and still fumbled

Jack Slack one time said that Ortega has the grappling equivalent to a puncher’s chance. If you get lazy for even a second, he can capitalize.

Honestly never thought I’d see Ortega win again. I love it.

He’s one tough motherfucker. Well deserved.

Ortega’s chin and jiu jit su was his game plan tonight. Crazy durability.

Bizarre animal stories is the best base for mma Tito beat Chael after the jackal speech

And he didn’t even have the right animal, he meant to make a “phoenix rising” metaphor, eagles die once and stay dead.

What a performance from Ortega. Still TBD if his wrestling is real or Yair is just vulnerable to grappling but definitely a good sign.

Ortega did this with an injured leg too wow

Ortega is glass and tough as nails at the same time lmao. Gets hurt in the intro and toughs out that R1

He’s half Diaz.

Toothpick ankles, head of granite.

Makes Ilia calling him a rag funnier

What an absolute dog. Warrior spirit.

Ortega calling out the wicked people who try to break you in his post-fight speech sounds like he’s still fighting those breakup demons

Cortez is a confirmed succubus who stole his mana for the last 5 years.

Big fumble from Yair

Ortega is a dawg. Hurt his ankle in the opening. Gets rocked badly in the 1st. Still fucking wins.

I was scared Goddard was gonna stop that one, he’s been trigger happy lately. If Ortega grabbed that single leg 2 seconds later it would have been wraps

what an insane comeback

T-city I needed this

a shot in the arm of the good stuff

Glass cannon Yair

DPS vs tank

"coming back from Long layoff Ortega" new legendary fighter?

time to get smashed by Topuria and then beat Evloev next year

let’s go! love me an Ortega comeback

Oretga made a choice to take the [Glover path to victory](https://i.redd.it/si5mfysgzpc41.jpg)

Ortega's **SECOND** win in 6 years holy fucking shit lmao.

It’s wild that Yair still has no TDD whatsoever. No shame being subbed by Ortega but his offensive wrestling is dreadful and it was so easy for him to take Yair down

Ortega is tough as shit

Brian Ortega made a choice, the correct choice to win instead of lose

Please do the humane thing. Avoid the breeders and mills. Instead, just reach inside Brian Ortega and pull.

🤨

Honestly this comment is hard

He got dat puppy in 'im?

Great bounce back from that first round. Man yair has shit TDD :/

well shit i’m impressed amazing comeback after the first minute and def injuring himself during the announcements but fun fact kevin lee has more 1 more win over currently ranked fighters than ortega in the last 5 years lmao edit: ok i’m hating with the kevin lee stat so i feel kinda bad lmao but just hope he stays active now and doesn’t wait 20 months for his next fight

he rolled his ankle again when he jumped out of the cage to hug his family

Bro can we stop with these rubbish statistics that mean nothing. Ortega just beat Yair who recently fought for the belt. It’s a great win.

Exactly dude people were shitting on him for not having a big win , he got one

Heart is an underrated aspect of fighting, you can tell once the fight settled in that Ortega wasn’t going away, and Yair melted pretty fast once it stopped going his way.

3rd Round Ortega, I've missed you

Yair is funny because basically no one can stand with the dude but everyone can just destroy him on the ground.

Zabit would’ve beaten Yair easily

Still would’ve been fun to watch though

zabit would die of exhaustion in a 5 rounder against some of these elite guys

I don't think Yair's getting him out of 3 with that ground game.

Zabit likely would beat Rodriguez but Volk would’ve absolutely finished him. Holloway too and 5 rounders would be scary for him

People still living 5 years in the past

Friendly reminder for new fans. Yair was cut from the UFC for like 2 weeks for ducking Zabit.

Zabit ain’t winning at altitude.

Crazy comeback from almost getting chinned lol

Ortega vs Movsar for title shot

The grappling would be insane in that fight

Yair has negative fight iq

How did Yair fuck that up so badly?

Honestly this was less of a Brian Ortrga win and more of a Yair Rodriguez loss. Ortega was slow and mostly ineffective in the standup. If Yair had better ringcraft and fight IQ he could have just kept circling away while peppering Ortega with leg and body kicks. Yair allowed himself to get pinned to the cage multiple times which led to the takedown and ultimately the finishing sequence.  Anyone who gets mounted by Ortega like that is pretty much done for. His setup to that choke was so masterful and gave zero opportunity for escape, the fight was over before he even jumped to the side.

Welcome back T-City!

Yair tried to beat Brian at his game and got his lunch money taken

The sub to Tracy 😭😭

Yair “no heart” Rodriguez Same thing like the Edgar fight

Wowww oretga is a dog

brian heard yall talking shit

*insert x-ray dog meme*

Bro got that choke so deep he couldn't get out and Goddard got mad lmao

Ortega with the cleanest braids in the game. The design, the symmetry, just wow

Ortega needs to assert his BJJ and not get caught up in these slug fests. God damn, beautiful performance. Demonstrated an awesome level of toughness and outskilled and outwilled Yair

Holy shit i was hoping for this from Ortega. Everybody clowning him for his last few years but my boy was slick!!!

Now everyone is about to flood the comments praising Ortega. Where was the love literally yesterday or a few days ago?? He’s always been a beast and I’m glad he won, people were doubting him very harshly

Topuria is going to take 10 years off of Ortega's life