Renato
“Money” Moicano is frustrated with Brian
Ortega for pulling out of their matchup.
Moicano (21-7) was scheduled to welcome Ortega (16-5) to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight division at UFC
331 on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. However,
the matchup fell through five days before fight night after Ortega
suffered a cut above his eye in training, which required
stitches.
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Moicano, who now has a new assignment for a later date, recently
addressed Ortega’s pull-out.
Renato Moicano unloads on Brian Ortega after their UFC 331
fight falls apart
Moicano will now fight surging prospect Tom Nolan
(11-1) in the main event of a
Fight Night on Oct. 31 at Meta Apex in Las Vegas. The Brazilian
recently went off on Ortega for pulling out of the matchup,
revealing that he’s frustrated as he missed out on what he viewed
as a favorable matchup.
“Ortega chickened out,” Moicano said on his YouTube channel.
“Something I never expected whatsoever. Quite simply, the easiest
fight in the division just slipped right through my fingers. And I
was pissed, I was angry, but there’s nothing I can do about it. If
you’re watching this video, it’s because I’m not going to fight at
UFC 331, unfortunately, because of this son of a b*tch, because of
this guy who’s always pulling out.”
Ortega has previously pulled out of a matchup against Moicano
scheduled for this past March. The latter further notes that the
former featherweight title challenger also missed weight for his
last fight against Aljamain
Sterling last year.
Moicano believes Ortega has lost all credibility after pulling out
of consecutive fights and claims that “T-City” blamed his breakup
with fellow UFC fighter Tracy
Cortez for missing weight against Sterling.
“Nobody is ever going to trust you again,” Moicano added. “Who’s
going to want to fight Brian Ortega? He already missed weight
against Sterling; he’s had all kinds of problems. I didn’t want to
bring these personal things up here, but in interviews he said it
was Tracy Cortez’s fault, that Tracy Cortez was making his life
miserable, that he was having problems because of that. And now,
over the last two years, over the last three years, what’s the
problem? I’m asking, but I want you to go f*ck yourself. I don’t
even want to know.”