Brian Ortega shaves his head for Locks of Love donation
The morning of UFC weigh-ins is often filled with drama and excitement. Sometimes fighters will miss weight and sometimes it comes down to the very last minute. On Friday morning there was a little surprise at the UFC Fight Island 6 weight-ins in Abu Dhabi. Brian Ortega came to the scale for his featherweight fight against Korean Zombie with a brand new look. Ortega who has been rocking the very long hair look for some time showed up with his head completely shaved.
Whoa. Ortega shaves his head before the weigh-ins. The ponytail is no more. Usually that means a tough cut… or maybe he just wanted a fresh cut. pic.twitter.com/WMTh7aAezA
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 16, 2020
Now the exact reason that Ortega shaved his head isn’t known. One reason a fighter could show up to weigh-ins with their hair cut or shaved could be trouble making weight. Every ounce helps when trying to make a weight limit and if the hair is wet it can be quite heavy, especially long hair like Ortega had, Whatever the reason, Ortega is making cutting his hair into a good deed. His manager announced following his weighting in that Ortega is going to donate his long hair to Locks of Love.
Locks of Love is an organization that accepts donations of hair for children suffering from hair loss due to illness and chemotherapy. This almost happened before, at the UFC 214 weigh-ins when Ortega was once again close to missing the 146-pound limit. On that day Ortega tells of his coach having a knife in his hand ready to do the deed if needed.
“I gave my coach the knife,” Ortega explained after his UFC 214 fight. “I said if I don’t make the 0.5 cut the hair off. I went in there and it said 146.5 and the 146, and I was like, ‘Oh, yes I get to keep the Tarzan hair.”
Leading up to UFC Fight Island 6 he wasn’t so lucky, but the fight is on. UFC Fight Island 6 takes place on Oct. 17.
