Brian Ortega will not make his lightweight debut in his hometown. The UFC announced Monday that Ortega has withdrawn from Saturday’s rematch with Renato Moicano at UFC 331 in Los Angeles because of an injury, and the promotion did not disclose the nature of it.
Moicano is off the card as well. With fight week already underway, no short-notice replacement could be found.
He does better out of it than he might have. Moicano will headline a Fight Night card on October 31 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas against Tom Nolan, his fourth UFC main event.
The Rematch That Keeps Getting Postponed
Ortega and Moicano first met at UFC 214 in July 2017, where Ortega took a third-round guillotine at 3:29 and the two split Fight of the Night honors. The rematch had already been booked once, for UFC 326 in March, and Ortega pulled out of that one too. He said in an Instagram story at the time that he needed rest and physical therapy for a set of injuries, and that no surgery was involved.
The move to 155 pounds is the part that keeps slipping. Ortega has talked about it for years as his featherweight cuts got harder. He withdrew from a UFC 303 bout with Diego Lopes after missing weight, then ran into complications cutting for Aljamain Sterling last August, a fight rebooked at a 153-pound catchweight that he lost by decision.
He hasn’t fought since. Ortega is 1-4 in his last five and on a two-fight skid, and Saturday would have been his first appearance in 13 months, in the city he is from, on the UFC’s first numbered card in Los Angeles since UFC 227 in August 2018.
Nolan Gets The Fight He Asked For
Nolan called for this matchup in June. After a unanimous decision over Fares Ziam at the Meta APEX, the Australian used his post-fight interview to ask for Moicano by name, calling him a tough fight and saying a win would put him in range of the top five. He is on a five-fight win streak, and the UFC’s announcement listed him as the No. 11 lightweight contender.
Moicano snapped a two-fight skid of his own in April with a second-round rear-naked choke on Chris Duncan. The losses before it came against Beneil Dariush and, at UFC 311, a short-notice title challenge against Islam Makhachev.
UFC 331 is now down to 12 fights, with Gable Steveson against Sean Sharaf opening the main card. Joshua Van defends the flyweight title against Alexandre Pantoja in the main event, with Arman Tsarukyan facing Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main. It is the second September booking the promotion has lost to a withdrawal, after Yair Rodriguez came off the Noche UFC main event.
