UFC star Brian Ortega he hit the Golden Globes stage for a segment that left many viewers confused, but none the worse for wear.
“What a night,” Ortega, 34, wrote via his Instagram story on Sunday January 11. “Thank you @ufc for having us here at the Golden Globes.”
Ortega also shared a photo of himself on the red carpet, dressed in an all-black tuxedo and blue sunglasses.
Once inside the ceremony, Ortega—currently the number 9 featherweight in the UFC—and fellow fighter Mackenzie Dernthe current UFC women’s strawweight champion, was introduced as protection for the stars of the hockey drama. Heated rivalry, Connor Storrie i Hudson Williams.
Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams has received messages from closeted athletes since his show became a pop culture sensation. “They’re definitely the people who come up, kind of anonymous, who say, ‘I’m still a professional player and I’m still in the closet,'” Williams, 24, told Andy Cohen in (…)
“Our upcoming presenters are so excited right now that they’re being run over everywhere, so we had to bring in a little extra security,” the Golden Globes announcer said. Mark Malkin he said
That’s when Ortega and Dern, 32, appeared with UFC crew and walked the stage inside The Beverly Hilton before Storrie, 25, and Williams, 24, presented the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role on Television. adolescence’s Erin Doherty.
The segment fell flat for many viewers at home, who were baffled by the seemingly random and brief appearance of the UFC fighters.
“Mackenzie Dern and Brian Ortega just went out at the Golden Globes… for no reason,” said the MMA reporter. Damon Martin he wrote via X. “That was weird.”
Another viewer he wrote“The UFC people seemed as confused about why they were there as I was.”
While admittedly a bit forced, Ortega and Dern’s appearance can be attributed to the UFC’s new partnership with CBS and Paramount+, which aired the Golden Globes.
In October 2025, the UFC signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount to become the exclusive home of the organization’s flagship events. The first event of the deal, UFC 324, airs Saturday, January 24 on Paramount+.
Despite some criticism, Ortega argued that the UFC appearing at events like the Golden Globes actually makes a lot of sense.
“We’re entertainment when you think about it,” Ortega he told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet. “We’re live entertainment and we get to showcase our art through wrestling. For us to do that with the Paramount deal now, it’s a great achievement to be here and be recognized for what we do.”
He added, “We’re human, not just fighters, you know?”
Ortega is scheduled to return to the Octagon on March 7 to fight Renato Moicano.
Ortega last competed in August 2025 vs Aljamain Sterlinga fight that saw Ortega’s body react viscerally as he tried to make weight for the bout in Shanghai.
“(I was) confused about how my body wasn’t really shedding the water or why I was just holding it,” Ortega said in a video posted to his Instagram in September 2025. “But no matter what, we have to get this weight off… I hit 20 minutes on the bike. Once I got off, I was unconscious. I was unconscious for about 30 minutes.”
He continued: “During that time, they put ice on me. They took all my clothes off. They left me in boxers. I woke up in the ER, I took everything off. I tried to speak, I couldn’t really translate them because if they don’t take everything off, I’m going to take it off myself.”
Ortega contemplated canceling the fight, but decided to go ahead with it for one reason.
“I decided to fight for my family,” he said in the video. “That’s my job, to show up and do what I do for them. I fought for my family.”