After 18 months on the sidelines and three-and-a-half years without registering a win in the cage, one of the featherweight division’s most devastating finishers returns to UFC action this weekend in Mexico City.

Brian Ortega, one of the premier submission artists in the sport, takes on Yair Rodriguez in the co-main event of the UFC’s return to Mexico where he will seek to gain a measure of revenge for their last fight — won by Rodriguez by TKO a couple of summers ago after Ortega dislocated his shoulder towards the end of the first round in what was a main event fight in New York in July 2022.

To do so, he will have to overcome the challenge of the always entertaining Rodriguez, who comes into the bout on the back of a title loss to then-champ Alexander Volkanovski last summer.

But as Ortega has repeatedly shown throughout his career if he gets his hands on an opponent in any type of advantageous situation, it could be lights out.

Just ask Cub Swanson.

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