Ortega allegedly slapped Park due to what the translator said on Jung’s behalf on a recent edition of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. Park says he was caught by surprise by what went down at UFC 248, but Park can’t understand why Ortega was so mad.
“I don’t know what he was tripping about,” Park said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie). “He was just mad for no reason, but I didn’t pay no mind. I was cool. I was just chilling. I was jet lagged just spacing out (after flying from South Korea), and then when ‘Zombie’ went to the bathroom all of a sudden I see someone pull up all of a sudden, and he’s like, ‘Hey, dog, are you Jay Park?’ And it just kind of caught me by surprise, and I was like, ‘Yeah?’ As I stood up, he smacked me. As I was standing up he smacked me. It was very narrow. There was chairs behind me so I kind of fell back, then I got up, and I pushed him. Whatever, there was a little scuffle or whatever, and people broke it up.”
Park did file a police report after the incident, but he is unsure if there is going to be any follow through beyond that.
“If it was just for attention – it’s good,” Park said. “To be honest, cool. I’ll take it on the chin for ‘Zombie.’ If it builds up the fight, cool. But if it was about the translation, I don’t know. He needs to reassess his life. That’s not it.”
Ortega, in a now deleted Twitter post, issued a statement on why he slapped Park at UFC 248 (via Simon Samano of MMA Junkie):
On May 9, 2018, Jay Park signed Korean Zombie to a management contract under AOMG Entertainment, of which Park is the CEO, and soon after the trash talking began. When I finally made it to Korea for the press conference, KZ approached me with his translator (a real one, not Jay Park) and said, “I want to apologize for the trash talking, it was my management that wants to do it to promote the fight.” I accepted his apology, shook his hand and we had a great press conference. Soon after I tore my knee, and the fight was cancelled. Four weeks ago, KZ and JP went on Ariel’s show and said I dodged the fight. “Dodging” and “injury” are two separate things, and since I already knew JP was the one writing the script, that’s when I welcomed him to the fight game and warned him to watch his mouth. On Saturday night, I slapped three people a [sic] the same time. I apologize for slapping the “translator,” and I apologize for slapping the “K-pop star,” but I don’t apologize for slapping the “instigator.”
TMZ Sports has also released a video of the altercation, but the slap isn’t seen in said video, just the aftermath of what went down:
