Ortega vs Rodriguez
What a twisted matchup this one is. When I say twisted, I don’t mean bad, I just mean that the fight really has the potential to take many twists and turns on both ends. On both sides of the cage you have 2 men that really do not fear becoming unchained. Their fighting styles run similar paths, but stylistically they couldn’t be more different. So how can that be? Well when I mean similar paths, I mean that they are willing to go all in on what they know they are good at. They will sell out in situations just to see if they can make something stick. On Rodriguez’s end, He will use a dynamic striking approach that tries to use the element of surprise to capsize his opposition. The philosophy behind this is, “Man can’t see, He can’t fight”. I know that is a caddy movie line, but it really is true in this statement with his style. We often think in terms of defense. “You can’t hit what you can’t catch”, but it stands true from an offensive perspective as well, just with a modified approach. On the other side you have Brian Ortega that is not as unchained on the feet, but he will commit and commit fully if he sees an opportunity to jump on a limb hard and fast. It doesn’t matter if you are standing, sitting, on your back, or in top position. If you expose the slightest of windows, Ortega will be on the hunt for it. The biggest difference in both of their styles is that Ortega has much more of an endpoint to his approach, where Rodriguez is more a hope, a prayer, and timing. Much more of a “Right place, right time” approach. A perfect example is his fight with Korean Zombie. It was clear that Zombie was on his way to a decision victory against Rodriguez but he unchained, took a chance, and the right time and right chance philosophy came to fruition. With an overall record of 14-3, there is no denying that there is something very dynamic yet symmetrical with the fighting style of Yair. With 4 KOS and 3 Submissions, Yair has built up quite the resume of names, but you need to wonder if he fought them all at the right time for the most part. Dan Hooker and Fili are the 2 fights I can highly respect. Outside of that, he beat an aged BJ PENN, An Aged Stephens, and Lost to Holloway and an Aging Frankie Edger. All the other guys that he has beat really holds no validity with me. After losing to Holloway in a very entertaining fight, Yair has at least proven that he belongs in spots like this because he is going to perform and not lay down and die. It seems so odd to me that even though his first fight was under the UFC umbrella in 2014, He still feels like a prospect that we are still waiting on. His career has been strange to say the least, but he is in a spot to make a serious statement once and for all. He takes on Brian Ortega who has all of the potential in the world, but you can see that he too has made some of his fights much harder than they need to be. It seems that Ortega tends to get into these wars until he sees openings to implore his ace of spades which is his grappling. There are spots in your career that you need to show you have heart, but this is in spots. Not every fight needs to be a dragged out war, and it seems Ortega has been in some spots where the damage was borderline hard to look at. I am all for wars from a viewing angle but if that was my fighter, I would have a real come to Jesus moment with my fighter. Explain to him that there are different ways to skin a cat and the old saying sometimes stand firm that “Only Fools Rush In”. With an overall record of 15-2 Ortega has 7 Submissions and 3 KOS to his credit. In his 2 losses, he has been KOD 1 time by DOC. STOPPAGE. The guy has been proven to be extremely durable and he is one of the very few fighters that has shown a very nice balance in extremely high pedigree grappling coupled with a very rapidly advancing boxing game as well. Usually when a fighter is very grappling centric, it is hard to get them to buy into terms of balancing out their game. Ortega is dangerous in both spots which will only open up his grappling more and more as fighters start to respect his hands more. With that said, I am not sure Yair is going to respect anywhere this fight goes to be honest. While Ortega will lean on his durability a bit, Yair will rely on his elements of surprise to catch Ortega slipping. One important thing that you need to keep in mind is that durability is great, but the shots that knock you out are the shots that you don’t see coming, and that is the dangerous element that Yair brings into the cage on Saturday. However, this all boils down to “End Points” for me. Like I said, Yair has the element of surprise, but Ortega has more movements with intent to have ending points, closing credits, or a final chapter. I still have no idea what to make of Yair. Personally, I am not a fan, and Ortega has shown me much more of what I am getting for my money. I think Yair has his spots here, but this is Ortega’s fight to win or lose in my opinion.
Ortega by way of Submission
