In spite of a scare that the fight was off, the UFC Shanghai co-main event featuring Brian Ortega and Aljamain Sterling will remain on. Some people in the MMA community, however, if the bout should be called off after all.
It all started with a now-deleted post to X (formerly Twitter) by Alex Beuhein of MMA Mania, who stated that the fight between Ortega and Sterling was off. According to Beuhein, Ortega fainted and hit his head while cutting weight, resulting in him needing to go to the hospital.
About an hour later, new reports surfaced that Ortega did not leave for the hospital and the fight remained on, albeit at a new catchweight of 153 pounds.
UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald would take to social media to provide an update on the situation, claiming while the fainting and hospital reports were not true, there was "drama" and Ortega was not going to be able to make the featherweight limit.
Ortega would weigh in successfully at 153 pounds; however, his sunken appearance during the weigh-in and face-off with Sterling drew major concern amongst MMA fans.
Brian Ortega's Appearance During UFC Shanghai Weigh-Ins Draws Concerns, Criticism
This is Ortega's second straight fight that has seen him experience weight cutting difficulties. He was scheduled to face Diego Lopes at UFC 303 in a featherweight bout. One day prior, Ortega's weight difficulties would result in the bout being moved to lightweight before the bout was scrapped and postponed to Noche UFC 2: UFC 306 in September.
Ortega would lose the fight, making it three losses in his last four, starting from an unsuccessful challenge of Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 266.
Sterling is 1-1 since moving up to featherweight, defeating Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 and losing to Movsar Evloev at UFC 310.