Brian Ortega and ‘The Korean Zombie’ get into an altercation at UFC 248, Ortega escorted out

UFC 248 went down on Saturday night in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But though there were two title fights and a number of other exciting bouts on the card, apparently that wasn’t enough action for some folks because according to UFC President Dana White, featherweight contenders Brian Ortega and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung got into an altercation during one of the bouts.

“There was a lot of crazy sh*t going on tonight,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “It was weird. [Ortega] and The Zombie got in a fight which is completely unlike both of their personalities. Zombie doesn’t even speak English so I don’t know what the hell he could have said to get Ortega to start going crazy but yeah, it was weird.

“It happened right over in the fighters’ section. It wasn’t backstage. It was in the fighters section and it happened right during the fight.”

An altercation between Ortega and The Korean Zombie would be quite out of character for both men as they are widely respected in the MMA community as professional, genial fighters. But according to a report from Ariel Helwani, the altercation actually did not even involve The Korean Zombie, just his team. Allegedly, Ortega slapped Jay Park—a Korean musician who served as translator for Jung during a recent interview with Helwani—because he took umbrage with Park’s translation. All of this apparently happened while Jung was in the bathroom and a video of the incident also surfaced that appears to show Ortega being escorted out of the area by security, comporting with White’s version of events.

According to White, no legal action is expected to take place at this time.

Ortega and Jung were supposed to face each other in the main event of UFC Busan last December but Ortega was forced out of the fight with an ACL injury and Jung fought Frankie Edgar instead, knocking out the former champion in the first round. Now, with Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway getting set for a rematch, it appears Ortega and Jung may get a second chance at facing one another.