Ray Borg Knows he “Opened a Lot of Eyes” in Memorable, UFC on FOX 11 Debut
By Kelsey Mowatt
Although Ray Borg lost his Octagon debut, and experienced defeat for the first time in his MMA career, the flyweight did nothing but impress at UFC on FOX 11. Borg stepped up on short notice to face Dustin Ortiz at the recent event, and battled the promotion’s #13th ranked flyweight to a split decision loss. If fans weren’t aware of Borg heading into the card, there’s a good chance they are now.
“You know man it was a great experience and I fought a tough guy,” Borg noted on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio. “Mentally it put me in a good spot, because it made me realize that I can compete with the highest level flyweights, and, you know, honestly in my opinion I thought I won the fight. Sometimes it’s not what you think; it’s the judges that make the call and that’s what they’re going to stick by.”
After the action filled bout, which featured plenty of entertaining scrambles and exchanges, two of three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Ortiz.
“Even though I thought I won the fight, I can’t really sit here and mope about it,” said Borg, who just two weeks before fighting Ortiz, tapped out Nick Urso while competing for Legacy Fighting Championship. “I just have to get in there, work harder to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Borg was booked to fight Ortiz after the latter’s original opponent, Alptekin Ozkillic, was forced to withdraw due to injury. After the bout, Ortiz conceded that fighting Borg had been a “huge risk”, since the FIT NHB fighter is a newcomer to the organization. In other words, Borg was in somewhat of a win-win situation, since few people were picking him to defeat the top ranked flyweight.
“I definitely agree; I opened up a lot of eyes,” stated Borg, while discussing the notion that he had less to lose at UFC on FOX 11. “I hadn’t had a full training camp leading into that fight, only because I had fought previously two weeks before that, but really, I didn’t know much about Dustin Ortiz. I took the fight on two weeks notice and competed very well with him, and in some people’s eyes, beat him. So it was very big opportunity to be able to go in there and compete with the highest level flyweights.”
“I even told my trainer that it was a little difficult for me to get into fight mode, because it was just so hard to grasp the concept that this was actually happening,” Borg furthered. “It was totally mind boggling for me to realize that I had only been fighting for two years, and finally, made it in the UFC. Although I’m really young, I’ve made a lot of sacrifices and had a lot of struggles to get here.”
Borg made his pro debut in August, 2012, after going undefeated in four amateur fights while competing for King of the Cage. Now, seven years later after he began training at the age of 13, Borg has become one of the UFC’s youngest fighters.
“I definitely feel like I’m in the wave of next generation fighters,” said Borg, who has been booked to fight Ryan Benoit at the UFC’s June 28th Fight Night card in San Antonio. “It’s cool being part of the next generation, because one thing I really love is to be a role model for kids. I live a very clean lifestyle, and I have a little brother who looks up to me…I like to show kids a young age that I’m only 20 years old, and you can be where I’m at if you work hard.”