UFC: Brian Ortega opens up about the hardships of growing up as the son of Mexican immigrants in the US

More from author

Renjith Ravindranhttp://www.mmaindia.com
An engineer by luck and a sports writer by passion, Renjith has been covering various sports for almost half a decade. He has received praise from the likes of WWE superstars Paul Heyman and Natalya for his work and has also interviewed some notable names from the business. He is constantly looking out for creative challenges that excite him and finds beauty in the art of Combat Sports.
- Advertisement -

Prior to reaching where he is now, Brian Ortega had to go through a lot of hardships. Growing up as a Mexican immigrant in Los Angeles was one among them.

Brian Ortega fights Max Holloway for the title next (PC: UFC.COM)

He has a history of spending time in jail while his sisters had problems with alcohol and drug addictions. The Featherweight title challenger recently opened up about this phase of his life in a recent interview.

“I’m not saying my parents were bad when I say these things. They were busy. They had to work, they had to do their things to keep us afloat, so we didn’t have that luxury for all of us to sit down. My house was a revolving door. You walk in, you walk out, you get whatever you can eat, you leave, you go hang out with friends. I’m on my mission, my sister’s on another mission, my dad is working trying to provide, my mom is trying to do the same thing. And somehow we’re all co-existing with each other. My house always had at least 14 people in it. And one bathroom. So I didn’t really want to be home,” he said.

Ortega went on to note that he was lucky enough to be born in the states.

“I was blessed to be able to be born here. My dad crossed. My dad illegally went through the border and was living under a bridge, he was homeless. People are making fun of him, beating him up. All kinds of things. After he kind of figured out the situation, he brought my mom over. And my dad lived in an apartment in Wilmington [California] with 15 or 10 guys in one apartment. And my mom did the same thing with a bunch of girls,” he added.

The 27-year-old termed this particular phase of his life as a mode of survival and added that he learned a lot during all these.

Also Read..

Bellator: Lyoto Machida says UFC eventually matched Bellator offer, but it was too late

 

SHARE

If any content is used from this article, kindly backlink to this page.

If you like reading about sports, make sure you check out SportsIndiaShow.com
Also follow India’s biggest arm wrestling tournament at ProPanja.com

Exit mobile version