Defiant Ortega Tweets, Deletes Non-Apology

Photo by Woohae Cho/Zuffa LLC

One minute you’re the face of Modelo beer and training A-list Hollywood celebrities like Halle Berry, the next minute you’re being escorted from T-Mobile Arena for knocking around wimpy Korean pop stars.

Welcome to the world of Brian Ortega.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title contender put hands on Jay Park, CEO of AOMG Entertainment, who serves as friend, manager, and part-time translator for Chan Sung Jung.

Jung has been trying to fight Ortega since mid-2019.

According to “T-City,” the slap heard ‘round “Sin City” was revenge for trash talk orchestrated by Park after Ortega was bounced from the UFC Busan mixed martial arts (MMA) event last December in South Korea.

If managers are fair game now, can someone please slap this guy?

“Four weeks ago, [Jung] and [Park] went on Ariel (Helwani’s) show and said I dodged the fight,” Ortega said in a since-deleted tweet. “Dodging and injury are two separate things, and since I already knew [Park] was the one writing the script, that’s when I welcomed him to the fight game and warned him to watch his mouth. On Saturday night, I slapped three people at the same time. I apologize for slapping the ‘translator,’ and I apologize for slapping the ‘K-pop star,’ but I don’t apologize for slapping the ‘instigator.’”

I’ve been around this business a long time and I can tell you with some degree of certainty that had Nate Diaz slapped Park for the exact same reason, most of the fans complaining would instead be high-fiving and tweeting out nonsense like “Welcome to the 209, bitch!”

But because it was Ortega they’re instead like, “Wow, dick move bro.”

Outside of booting “T-City” from the arena, there has been no other action from the promotion, though it should be noted that Park filed a police report on the night of the incident.

“He’s like the No. 2 guy in the world, a UFC professional fighter. What is he doing coming and attacking me?” Park told ESPN. “… I’m a singer, bro. I weigh 143 pounds. I’m like 40 pounds lighter than you. He’s the No. 2 UFC dude in the world. It doesn’t make you look tough.”

I guess Ortega didn’t learn anything from this former featherweight.