Brian Ortega There’s a different kind of motivation coming in UFC 303 on Saturday.
Ortega (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) was not originally scheduled to fight at the event. But then the phone rang with the opportunity to fight Diego Lopes on 17 days’ notice in a featherweight bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), as part of the restructured International Fight Week lineup following Conor McGregor’s injury withdrawal.
Ortega revealed he was planning to move up to lightweight for a September 14 fight at UFC 306, before being offered the fight with Lopes (23-6 MMA, 3-1 UFC). “T-City” is coming off a third-round submission over Yair Rodriguez in February and hasn’t fought more than once in a year since 2018, so entering this position doesn’t exactly fit with his history.
But Ortega wanted to do something “disruptive,” he said, so he accepted the offer. But more than that, he told MMA Junkie that a big part of his decision to compete at UFC 303 is so he can donate $100,000 from his purse to Fearless Church In Los Angeles.
“I’m fighting for a bigger cause in this fight, so that fuels me in this fight,” Ortega told MMA Junkie ahead of UFC 303. “I’m going to use the money and donate it to the church. I will help many men. It’s basically the main reason I took the fight.”
According to Fearless Church, “a scared world needs a fearless church” and people need to “love more, fear less.” Ortega, 33, said he recently attended Fearless’ “Man Camp” along with his sons. He described the experience as “life-changing,” and that’s what led him to step into the Octagon against Lopes in short order.
“It was my pastor and I – we went to this, Man Camp, and we did this, and after that it was life changing,” Ortega said. “Many men were saved. Many men have managed to be authentically themselves without any judgment. It was real. In a world where everything is kind of fake, it was real to me. Seeing all this, having my children there – I want that for more people.
“If I can donate $100,000 and make it happen this year on a larger surface. There were only 160 people. If I can make this happen with 300, 400, 500 people, that’s what I’m going to do, and that’s why I took this fight.”
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 303.
