Ray Borg (photo via UFC.com)

By Kelsey Mowatt

After being forced to withdraw from UFC 203 due to illness, Ray Borg was understandably worried about his own health, but the flyweight admits he was also concerned about the man he was supposed to fight, Ian McCall.

McCall and Borg were scheduled to fight at the September 10th event, but after the latter became violently ill and wound up in the emergency room, the bout was called off. It marked the second time in two months that McCall has had a fight cancelled during fight week. McCall was booked to fight Justin Scoggins at UFC 201 on July 30th, but due to weight-cutting issues, Scoggins had to withdraw.

Recently Borg appeared on Full Contact Fighter Radio, and the flyweight contender reported the following:

“That’s one thing I even told my coaches and even McCall, is like, even though I’m more concerned about my health over anything, one of the very first things in my head was s–t man, I feel so horrible. It wasn’t like if it was Scoggins, and then he (McCall) had a couple of fights and this happened. They were both back-to-back.”

“I felt super sorry and let the guy know that sorry it had to be me; sorry that it had to be twice in a row, but you know, s–t happens. That’s what he ended up saying too; that there’s situations that are just out of my control. That’s one thing that I had to tell myself…I’m not going to lie man. I’m a fighter at heart. It’s great to make a living at this but I’m a fighter at heart, and the fact that I couldn’t go in there and fight was crushing to me. I was super depressed for the last few days.”

Borg also reported that he has started to recover, and that he hopes to fight in the not too distant future. The 23 year-old fighter is coming off a decision loss to Scoggins in February, which snapped Borg’s three fight winning streak.