Brian Ortega has officially apologized for slapping Jay Park at UFC 248.
According to the featherweight fighter, Ortega took issue with Chan Sung Jung’s translator due to claims from Jung that the California native ducked out of their scheduled bout at UFC Fight Night Busan.
Jung called Ortega a “coward” over the incident and threatened to destroy him if they ever met inside of the ring following the incident. Ortega finally addressed the altercation on social media and justified why he slapped the translator in the first place (transcript courtesy of
MMA Junkie):
On May 9, 2018, Jay Park signed Korean Zombie to a management contract under AOMG Entertainment, of which Park is the CEO, and soon after the trash talking began. When I finally made it to Korea for the press conference, KZ approached me with his translator (a real one, not Jay Park) and said, “I want to apologize for the trash talking, it was my management that wants to do it to promote the fight.
"I accepted his apology, shook his hand and we had a great press conference. Soon after I tore my knee, and the fight was cancelled. Four weeks ago, KZ and JP went on Ariel’s show and said I dodged the fight. “Dodging” and “injury” are two separate things, and since I already knew JP was the one writing the script, that’s when I welcomed him to the fight game and warned him to watch his mouth.
On Saturday night, I slapped three people a [sic] the same time. I apologize for slapping the “translator,” and I apologize for slapping the “K-pop star,” but I don’t apologize for slapping the “instigator.”
Long story short, Ortega believed that Park was the instigator of the situation; however, the UFC fighter deleted the post shortly after. After a couple of days, Ortega issued an apology:
In terms of Park and Ortega, it appears that the issues won’t go any further as the rapper
stated that he won’t sue Ortega. A police report was filed but it's unlikely that anything will come of it. At the moment, neither Jung or Park have responded to the featherweight’s statement.