Brian Ortega Officially Confirmed as No. 1 Contender to Face Max Holloway Next

After a stunning knockout over Frankie Edgar this past weekend at UFC 222, Brian Ortega is officially in line to fight for the featherweight title.

While it shouldn’t come to a surprise to anybody that Ortega will face featherweight king Max Holloway later this year, the undefeated submission specialist actually recorded the call he received from UFC president Dana White telling him that the title shot was his.

Ortega talked about that phone call later in the day when appearing on the “UFC Unfiltered” podcast.

“I am getting the shot at Holloway. I just got off the phone with Dana White, he said I’m 100-percent positively getting the shot,” Ortega said. 

“I’m still cheesing up and smiling right. It’s so surreal but I’m not celebrating until I get that belt.”

Ortega is still undefeated in his career including back-to-back wins over top five ranked opponents with the knockout over Edgar and a submission win over Cub Swanson from last December.

While there’s no date confirmed for Ortega’s title shot against Holloway, the champion has mentioned UFC 226 on July 7 as an ideal landing spot for him. Ortega was perfectly happy with that date as well when speaking at the UFC 222 post fight press conference.

Now it’s up to the UFC to decide when the world will get to see Holloway vs. Ortega with the featherweight title on the line.