Korean rapper tells police that UFC's Brian Ortega slapped him during UFC 248
Jay Park, a Korean rapper and occasional translator for UFC featherweight Chan Sung Jung, filed a police report in Las Vegas alleging that Brian Ortega slapped him during UFC 248 on Saturday, according to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi.
Park is reportedly undecided on whether to press charges against Ortega, who was previously scheduled to fight Jung — popularly known as “The Korean Zombie” — in Busan, South Korea, last December before pulling out with a torn ACL. A Las Vegas police public information officer told ESPN Park has up to one year to make a decision.
Ortega has since apologized to Park and said he is willing to fight Jung when ready.
I want to officially apologize to JPark for Saturday night, when Zombie is ready we can fight.
— Brian Ortega (@BrianTcity) March 11, 2020
TMZ posted video of the aftermath of the incident, in which Ortega can be seen restrained and saying “I told you I’d slap you like a b----.”
If charges are pressed, police would investigate the incident as a misdemeanor battery case.
From ESPN:
"I don't want to take this dude's money," Park said. "I don't want him to go to jail or anything like that. I don't wish anything bad about him. It was just really weird. I don't know what other way to put it. I don't know what he was thinking. He needs to get his act together. Real talk."
UFC’s ‘Korean Zombie’ livid with Ortega, pledges to knock him out
While Park said he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Ortega, Jung seems to have other ideas in mind judging from a scorching and profane Instagram post.
In a lengthy caption, Jung accused Ortega of waiting until he went to the bathroom at T-Mobile Arena before approaching Park and attacking him. He called Ortega a coward and said he would fight him, pledging to knock him out and leaving him with a bloody face.
Warning, the following post contains profanity.
Why did Brian Ortega slap Korean Zombie’s friend and translator?
According to ESPN, Park said he believes Ortega was unhappy with a translation Park gave for Jung during an interview on Feb. 10. In one translation, Park reportedly said Ortega was scared to fight Jung, which prompted a threat from Ortega on social media after the interview.
Park backed up Jung’s account of the incident, saying Ortega was seated near the two in the crowd at UFC 248. Once Jung left for the bathroom, Ortega allegedly approached Park and slapped him in the face.
From ESPN:
"He's like, 'Hey dog, are you Jay Park?'" Park said. "It kind of caught me by surprise. As I stood up, he like smacked me. ... It was very narrow. There were chairs behind me, so I kind of fell back, and then I got up and I kind of pushed him."
Ortega was reportedly escorted out of the arena after the incident, while Park said he experienced jaw stiffness from the alleged slap.
Park also said he did not mistranslate Jung’s statement from February and that Ortega effectively slapped the messenger:
"For me, to be honest, I don't feel like I did anything wrong," Park said. "I just translated. I never put words in Zombie's mouth. I've never put up a [social media] caption for him. I never told him to trash-talk. I have a lot of respect for fighters. They put everything on the line -- they train hard, they fight for their family."
So in summary, we reportedly have Ortega waiting for a fighter to go to the bathroom before attacking a friend of that fighter for accurately translating that fighter saying Ortega is afraid of him. That is quite a look, especially if it ends with him getting knocked out by that same fighter.
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