Sitting out since suffering the first loss of his MMA career last December, top UFC featherweight contender Brian Ortega is targeting a main event fight against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung next.

There were talks of a fight between Ortega and Jung headlining the UFC’s upcoming card in Mexico City in September, however nothing ever materialised and instead Yair Rodriguez will headline the card against Jeremy Stephens.

Talking recently to MMA Fighting, Ortega discussed the Mexico City fight with “The Korean Zombie” that fell through.

“In my head it was great. ‘Korean [Zombie]’ was talking smack,” Ortega said.” I felt good, I was already back to training, I was like cool. I had my boys in Mexico City set up, training facilities over there.

“I had a whole layout and then some unfortunate events in management and team and everything happened. Now we had to fix everything and now we’re back.”

After finishing top featherweights such as Renato Moicano, Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar, Ortega (14-1) had his shot at 145-pound gold when he fought Max Holloway at UFC 231 last December. Losing by doctor’s stoppage in the fourth-round, Ortega has not fought since, however he is now eager to get a main event return against Jung.

“I want to fight. I want to give the fans a main event fight somewhere,” Ortega said. “‘Korean Zombie’ sounds good, especially after the fact that he’s talking s—t, which is not like him, so I’m guessing there’s something behind that. If he can keep talking and the fans want to see it and we can make that a main event somewhere, we should.”

Jung (15-5) is coming off a first-round TKO of Renato Moicano at UFC Greenville in June, bouncing back from his dramatic last-second KO loss to Yair Rodriguez last November.