‘I Want To Kill My Neighbors’

Brian Ortega channeled his inner demons ahead of his last Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight title fight at UFC 266 in September 2021.

That year’s International Fight Week saw the pair of season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) coaches, Ortega, and the Featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, settle their differences. Along with a crazy fight and insane guillotine attempt from Ortega in the middle of the fight, “T-City’s” walkout was an immediate talking point.

The perennial 145-pound contender walked out to a remixed version of the hit movie franchise theme song for The Purge, in Las Vegas, Nevada’s T-Mobile Arena. Considering the nature of the franchise and its subject matter, Ortega’s inspiration for the walkout was perfectly aligned.

“That walkout was — you want the story behind the walkout?” Ortega hesitated at UFC 303 media day. “At that time, I was living in an apartment. I had left the house and everything when I separated [with my partner]. There was this neighbor upstairs who just every hour it was like 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning, I’m like, ‘Dude, you guys, go to sleep. What’s going on? Come on now. I got a fight I gotta train for. I got a world title [to win], what’re you guys doing?’

“Then something — I was watching some reels or something and The Purge song came on, right?” he continued. “I started fantasizing, not the best thing, but like if The Purge was real, first thing I’m doing is going upstairs (laughs). ‘Cause I’m not a snitch, right, and I’m not a complainer, but dude, I even hit up the landlord like, ‘Yo, can you tell ‘em to be quiet, please?’ I know they’ve snitched on me before because I’ve been playing with my kids a little too rough. Like, I was running around one time and I was like, ‘I’m gonna kill you!’ and the kids were screaming, so they were about to call the cops because they thought I was gonna kill my kids. It wasn’t that crazy, that’s how we play around, but I never said nothing.”

Ortega, 33, added that the noisy neighbors only got worse after he complained, strengthening his anger towards them. In the end, Volkanovski was too much, winning their clash by unanimous decision.

“If The Purge was real, I would just go upstairs and handle business,” Ortega said. “I want to kill my neighbors — at that time.”

Ortega takes on Diego Lopes in UFC 303’s co-main event this weekend (Sat., June 29, 2024).

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