Brian Ortega and Aljamain Sterling will square off in a 153lb catchweight bout on Saturday, after Ortega caused fans concern during Friday’s weigh-in.
Ortega and Sterling were due to meet in a featherweight co-main event at UFC Shanghai, scheduled for five rounds, but reports emerged late on Thursday (21 August) that Ortega was struggling to make weight – and that the fight would be cancelled.
However, it was soon announced that the contest would still go ahead, still scheduled for five rounds, but with each man able to weigh in at 153lb.
American Ortega and Jamaican-American Sterling both did so successfully, though Ortega’s appearance and stilted movement on stage caused concern among fans.
Afterwards, Ortega simply wrote on Instagram, “Love you guys,” while Sterling wrote: “My 22nd UFC walk or something like that! I’m grateful to still be doing something that I LOVE!”
Last June, a similar scenario played out when Ortega struggled to make weight for a 145lb showdown with Diego Lopes; the bout was changed to a 155lb contest on one day’s notice, before Ortega withdrew on the night of the fight due to illness.
At the 11th hour, Ortega was replaced by Dan Ige, who was outpointed by Lopes. Ortega eventually faced Lopes in September, also losing via decision.
Saturday will indeed mark Sterling’s 22nd UFC contest, but just his third at featherweight. The 36-year-old previously held the bantamweight title from 2021 until 2023, recording three successful defences during that reign. “Funkmaster” won the belt from Petr Yan when the Russian landed an illegal knee, causing a disqualification, and retained it against Yan in a rematch before beating two more former champions: TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo.
Sterling then lost the title with a knockout by Sean O’Malley, but won his 145lb debut by outpointing Calvin Kattar last April. He then lost a narrow decision to Movsar Evloev in December.
Meanwhile, Ortega is a former two-time featherweight title challenger. The 34-year-old failed to dethrone Max Holloway in 2018 and Alexander Volkanovski in 2021, losing to each man on points.
Between those bouts, he outpointed Chan Sung Jung, and since his second title-fight loss, he is 1-2. In 2022, Ortega suffered an injury in a defeat by Yair Rodriguez, whom he submitted in their February 2024 rematch before losing to Lopes in September.
On Wednesday, Sterling criticised the five-round stipulation for his clash with Ortega, telling MMA Fighting: “I don’t know why it’s five rounds. I don’t know if Brian Ortega is the one who asked for five rounds, but like...
“Five-round main events, if you’re not the champion, you get an extra pay incentive. So I’m kind of annoyed, because we’re not getting extra pay for five rounds. I’m like: ‘Did he want to fight five rounds for no extra money?’
“I think it’s kind of f***ing stupid. Like, what are we getting out of this? We’re not getting a trophy at the end of this, so why are we fighting five rounds? This is 10 extra minutes of training, 10 extra minutes of fighting. I don’t know, I legitimately do not know.
“We’ve got the same manager, so... I don’t want five rounds, like, who wants to do five rounds? Who wants to fight more for the same pay rate that they’re going to get? It doesn’t make any sense.”
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