UFC 303’s Brian Ortega reveals the famous Purge walkout was the result of a fantasy about a massacre of neighbors

Brian Ortega channeled his inner demons ahead of his final Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title fight at UFC 266 in September 2021.

This year’s International Fight Week saw the pair of season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Trainer, Ortega and the featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovskysettle their differences. Along with an insane fight and an insane guillotine attempt by Ortega mid-fight, the departure of “T-City” was an immediate topic of conversation.

The eternal 145-pound contender went to a remix version of the theme song of the hit film series for The purgeat the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Considering the nature of the franchise and its theme, Ortega’s inspiration for the move was spot on.

“That strike was — do you want to know the story behind it?” Ortega hesitated at UFC 303 media day. “At the time, I was living in an apartment. I had left the house and everything when I split up (with my partner). There was this neighbor upstairs that every hour, it was like 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m., was like, ‘Dude, guys, go to sleep. What’s going on? Come on. I’ve got a fight to train for. I’ve got a world title (to win), what are you doing?’

“Then something happened – I was watching some footage or something and the song The Purge came on, right?” he continued. “I started fantasizing, not the best, but if The Purge was real, the first thing I would have done was go upstairs (laughs). Because I’m not a snitch, right, and I’m not a complainer, but dude, I even yelled at the landlord, like, ‘Yo, can you please tell them to be quiet?’ I know they’ve snitched on me before for playing a little too rough with my kids. Like one time I was running around saying ‘I’m going to kill you!’ and the kids were screaming, so they were about to call the police because they thought I was going to kill my kids. It wasn’t that crazy, that’s how we play, but I never said anything.”

Ortega, 33, added that the noisy neighbors only got worse after he complained, which only increased his anger at them. In the end, Volkanovski was too much and won the fight by unanimous decision.

“If the purge was real, I would just go upstairs and do my business,” Ortega said. “I would kill my neighbors – right now.”

Ortega takes over Diego Lopez in the co-main event of UFC 303 this weekend (Sat., June 29, 2024).

LIVE! Watch UFC 303 PPV on ESPN+ here!

“McGREGOR-FREE MAIN EVENT!” The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, June 29, 2024, without its biggest box office draw. Conor McGregorafter the Irish sports star postponed the “greatest comeback of all time” because he (seriously) broke his little toe. Once again the light heavyweight champion comes to his aid, Alex Pereiraagreed to a rematch against the former division champion, Jiri Prochazkain the pay-per-view (PPV) main event. In the co-headliner of UFC 303, the top-ranked featherweight challenger, Brian Ortegawill try to stop the rise of the red-hot, up-and-coming 145-pound candidate, Diego Lopez. The PPV main card of UFC 303 (see here) will also Anthony Smith Comparisons Roman Dolidze And Ian Garry Comparisons Michael “Venom” Page and much more. This action is a must-see! UFC303 Start time planned for 6pm ET (Preliminary round) and 10pm ET (PPV).

Don’t miss a single second of this EPIC face-slapping action!

Remember it MMAmania.com delivers LIVE round by round, stroke by stroke coverage of the entire UFC 303 fight card Right Herestarting with the early ESPN+ The “Prelims” games will take place online and start at 6pm ET (Simultaneous broadcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET), before the start of the pay-per-view (PPV) main card at 10pm ET (on too ESPN+).

To see the latest and greatest UFC 303: “Alex vs. Jiri 2” news and notes, be sure to visit our comprehensive event archive. Here.