Brian Ortega had a tough night at the office at UFC 306 on Saturday night when he suffered a convincing unanimous decision loss against Diego Lopes that left him battered and bruised.
The injury-jinxed Ortega appears to be relatively upbeat about the extent of the damage though, believing that he’s come out of the evening relatively unscathed by his standards, with the damage mostly being superficial.
“Face is a little bit swollen, lip is a little bit swollen,” Ortega said in an Instagram story. “Obviously, the eye was crying for a bit, but it is what it is. I’ll be crying blood for a bit. Leg is swollen. I’m putting some cream on it.
“We’re good mentally, physically,” Ortega continued. “Nothing is broken. Like I said, the prayer for me was just get me out of this fight without any surgery or things like that. We’re doing good.”
Now the 33-year-old Ortega is turning his attention towards figuring out what went wrong on the night, and in an honest appraisal of the situation the former title contender suggests that the simple answer is that he needs to improve.
“I did have some time to reflect obviously. I’ve got to make some moves to get better. That’s it.
“But I’m very thankful for you guys. The amount of love and support and messages. Thank you, guys – for real. To guys like me, it means a lot.”
