Mel Gibson is seemingly every UFC fan tuning into fights.
The legendary actor and filmmaker recently appeared on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ where he professed his love for the flagship MMA promotion and the fighters who risk it all inside the octagon.
The UFC has seen a steady rise in celebrity interest in recent years, from Donald Trump to Elon Musk.
Hollywood A-lister Gibson is another, although he admitted the bouts affect him emotionally more than most.
The Braveheart star specifically spoke to Rogan about the UFC 266 main event between then-featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and top contender Brian Ortega.
Volk defended his 145lbs crown over a gruelling five-round contest that almost saw ‘T-City’ submit the Australian on two separate occasions with a guillotine and triangle choke.
The 1st degree BJJ black belt almost pulled of a stunning upset against ‘The Great’, but Volk was ultimately able to wriggle out of the submission attempts and pick up a hard-fought decision win.
Gibson was in attendance for the fight, and described watching Oretga, who he knows on a personal level, as like ‘watching his son’, admitting he almost started crying at various points in the scrap.
“You know I’m addicted to the UFC right?” the 69-year-old Acadamy Award winner said.
“I love it [but] I feel kind of feel sorry for them. And one of the guys… I knew one of the guys fairly well. Usually, I’m pretty immune to this but like he was in there and he was fighting against [Alexander] Volkanovski.
“It was Brian Ortega and he was getting his a** handed to him in one fight. He almost got him a couple of times but because I knew Brian, it was like my son was in there.
“I almost started crying. And then it got to me that I should feel like this about all these guys but I don’t know them as well.”
UFC color commentator Rogan responded to Gibson’s heartfelt admission, revealing he finds it hard to watch fighters who are his friends at the tail end of their careers.
“It becomes a problem for me when I’m friends with the guy,” Rogan said.
“Also I see when they’re on the tail end of their career and they can’t take shots anymore and then when you talk to them, you recognize the speech patterns are slurring.”
Ortega followed up his narrow defeat to Volkanovski with a first-round TKO defeat to Yair Rodríguez on July 16, 2022. The Mexican-American fighter lost the bout after suffering a dislocated shoulder which rendered him unable to continue.
Ortega took an 18-month break after that defeat, but returned to win his rematch with Rodriguez at the UFC Mexico City Fight Night in February, 2024.
His rebooked fight with Diego Lopez went down on September 14, 2024, at UFC 306, which he lost by unanimous decision.
Oretga’s name was recently in the news after being called out by English UFC star Lerone Murphy for a featherweight matchup at UFC Fight Night 255 at the 02 Arena in London on March 25.
Manchester-born Murphy is the No. 11 ranked UFC featherweight and seems to fancy his chances against No. 6 Ortega.
“Ortega in London would be massive,” Murphy posted on X.
Ortega has never fought on British soil so a fight against Murphy in London could be a career first.
However, he is yet to respond to Murphy’s call out for the London card, which is headlined by a bout between light-heavyweights Jan Blachowicz and Carlos Ulberg.