Renato Moicano rips Brian Ortega for UFC 331 withdrawal

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.

Moicano, who now has a new assignment for a later date, recently addressed Ortega’s pull-out.

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.”