Brian Ortega Told To Avoid Mistake That Cost Cain Velasquez Heavyweight Title Ahead Of UFC Mexico Headliner Opposite Yair Rodríguez

Josh Thomson recently discussed a smart training idea that Brian Ortega could have used for this upcoming fight. 

This weekend, "T-City" will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon opposite Yair Rodríguez. Ortega's last fight saw him collide with "El Pantera" all the way back at UFC on ABC 3 in July 2022. The fight was cut short in the final minute of the first round when Ortega suffered a shoulder injury. 

In the more than 18 months since, Rodríguez vanquished Josh Emmett for interim gold and became the last unsuccessful challenger of Alexander Volkanovski's celebrated UFC featherweight championship reign. Ortega, meanwhile, has remained on the sidelines.

Thomson Speaks On Ortega's Training

During a recent episode of the WEIGHING IN podcast, Josh Thomson suggested that Ortega should have started training in host location Mexico City three weeks before the fight to acclimatize to the high altitude. 

"Hopefully he spent the first two to three weeks training over there in Mexico City," Thomson said. "'Cause Yair Rodríguez I believe lives and trains in Mexico City. When I went back and saw him explode onto the scene, and that same card where Cain lost to Werdum, he was on that card, flying around, back flip this, front kick this, it was all over the place in that fight."

Thomson likened it to Cain Velasquez's loss to Fabricio Werdum back at UFC 188. Velasquez avoided heading out to Mexico City too early, and his elite-level cardio was noticeably more sluggish at the fight.

Velasquez would end up submitting in the third round to a guillotine choke, losing the UFC heavyweight championship in the process. 

"To be able to do that in a three-round fight, do that against someone like a Brian Ortega," Thomson said. "It's gonna really, really show if Brian was smart enough to get out there early, at least two to three weeks, at least three weeks I would say... Cain Velasquez went out there two weeks beforehand, and Javier (Mendez) was trying to get him to go out there sooner, and Cain didn't want to leave... I think, ultimately, that's what cost him the fight."