Brian Ortega Announces Injury Has Pulled Him From Fight With “The Korean Zombie”

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has several, all-star and compelling fights lined up in the coming weeks. But, unfortunately one of those match-ups has been lost, as Brian Ortega has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming bout with Chan Sung Jung.

Ortega announces withdrawal due to injury

“T-City” was supposed to fight “The Korean Zombie” at the UFC’s December 21st card in Busan, South Korea. But recently the featherweight contender announced he can no longer fight, due to a partial tear he’s incurred to his ACL.

The good news is that Ortega didn’t incur a complete tear, and won’t be sidelined for too long. But, ya, the fact this fight isn’t happening in approximately two weeks time is a real downer. On paper, Jung – Ortega had all the makings of a spectacular fight.

This also means that 2019 will come and go without Ortega (14-1) fighting. The contender hasn’t competed since last December, when he was defeated by reigning, featherweight king, Max Holloway.

Jung (15-5) is coming off a quick, stoppage win over Renato “Moicano” in June. ESPN is reporting that the UFC is trying to find a new replacement opponent for Jung, who is from Busan and is key for driving interest in the card.

UFC Busan line-up to date

Here is the line-up to date for UFC Busan (via MMA Junkie).

Main Card (ESPN+, 5 a.m. ET)

TBA vs. Chan Sung Jung
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Dooho Choi vs. Charles Jourdain
Da Un Jung vs. Mike Rodriguez
Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Jun Yong Park
Kyung Ho Kang vs. Liu Pingyuan

Preliminary Card (ESPN, 2 a.m. ET)

Tanner Boser vs. Ciryl Gane
Suman Mokhtarian vs. Seungwoo Choi
Dong Hyun Ma vs. Omar Morales
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Matt Schnell
Raoni Barcelos vs. Said Nurmagomedov
Amanda Lemos vs. Veronica Macedo
Heili Alateng vs. Ryan Benoit
Sabina Mazo vs. opponent TBA