Ortega does not accept a confrontation with Stephens and Ngannou and Lewis are in the co-main event of UFC 226

B. Ortega is undefeated in his professional MMA career with 14 victories. Photo: Reproduction/Twitter UFC Brasil

After the champion leaves Max Holloway of the UFC 226 card, many speculations were made, including a possible confrontation between Brian ortega e Jeremy Stephens or a new 'T-City' meeting with Frank Edgar were analyzed. The mystery ended on Thursday afternoon (05), Ultimate announced that Francis Ngannou e Derrick Lewis as substitutes in the co-main event of UFC 226 this Saturday (07).

Ultimate's work began after Holloway's withdrawal from the event was confirmed and efforts were made to find an opponent who could enter the Octagon in a short space of time to face Ortega on the card. According to UFC president Dana White, of the top five ranked featherweights, Jeremy Stephens was quick to accept and wanted to face Brian two days in advance.

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Even with Stephens' confirmation, there was no acceptance from Brian ortega, but 'T-City' did not accept the fight that would not be valid for the featherweight belt. “Ortega refused the fight. We’ll see what happens,” White said at a UFC 226 press conference on Thursday (05).

In an interview with the website “MMA Fighting”, Ortega's coach, Rener Gracie stated that Brian did not accept a new fight because he wants a title fight. As a result, Ultimate decided to cancel the featherweight fight.

“The featherweight championMax Holloway is out of your fight against Brian ortega due to an injury, and the fight was removed from the UFC 226 card, this Saturday. In the co-main event position, the fight between heavyweights will take place Francis Ngannou e Derrick Lewis, numbers 1 and 5 in the ranking, respectively. The fight between Paul felder e Mike Perry will move to the main card”, announced Ultimate.

Dana White confirmed that there will be 11 fights on the UFC 226 card, previously with Holloway and Ortega, the number of fights would be 12. The president of Ultimate regretted the absence from the card, but stated that he did everything to have the 12th fight. “Believe me, we tried everything to put another fight on this card and it didn’t work,” he concluded.

The UFC said it does not know when the featherweight title fight between Max Holloway e Brian ortega.