Brian Ortega reflects on UFC Shanghai weigh-in debacle that led to lightweight move: ‘This one scared me a little bit’

Brian Ortega has made the decision to move up to lightweight after a harrowing weight-cut incident during UFC Shanghai forced him to abandon his featherweight career.

Originally scheduled to fight Aljamain Sterling at 145 pounds ten months ago, Ortega passed out during his weight cut and woke up in an emergency room, a scare that served as a turning point. Despite the incident, he fought Sterling anyway on a 153-pound catchweight, losing a decision. Ortega acknowledged on the JAXXON podcast that the experience frightened him and made him realize featherweight may no longer be sustainable. He credited Sterling's concern for his health in agreeing to the catchweight arrangement, and speculated that had the incident occurred in the United States, athletic commission rules might have pulled him from competition entirely.

Ortega emphasized that the move to 155 pounds is about reclaiming his training camps from constant weight-management stress. After cutting weight aggressively since age 15, he intends to make the lighter cut to lightweight the foundation of his future career. Though he hasn't ruled out a return to featherweight if his discipline improves, the focus now is on quality training and preparation rather than extreme nutrition protocols.

Ortega was previously scheduled to face Renato Moicano at UFC 326 in March but withdrew due to injury. He expressed openness to rebooting that matchup, having defeated Moicano via third-round submission in a 2017 featherweight bout.