Ortega Reveals Recovery Timeline Following ACL Tear

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title contender, Brian Ortega, had to make a very tough decision after injuring his ACL: cancel his UFC main event against Chan Sung Jung and disappoint his fans, or risk a full-blown tear and find himself out of action for a year or more.

Which equates to a year or more without pay.

“I tore my ACL in training and I won’t be fighting in Korea,” Ortega wrote on social media. “Thankfully it was only a partial tear so I’m already rehabbing it and the plan is to be back to 100% in 1-3 months.”

No word yet from the promotion on how it plans to handle the UFC Busan headliner, scheduled for Sat., Dec. 21, 2019 inside Sajik Arena in South Korea. I would imagine “Korean Zombie” — a local hero — will remain on the card in some capacity.

“I didn’t want to let down the fans, the Zombie, and the UFC, so I strongly considered pushing through it and fighting anyways,” Ortega said. “But according to the doctors, the risk of a full rupture in the fight was high and that would put me out for up to a year. Sorry guys, I gotta take care of this right now, but I’ll make it all up to you in 2020 I promise.”

Ortega (14-1, 1 NC) is ranked No. 2 in the 145-pound division following his Max Holloway loss roughy one year back. As for Jung (15-5), he’s looking to build on his Renato Carneiro win from last June.