Sometimes the best decisions are the ones made without thought. That strategy has worked out for Brian Ortega, anyway.

Ortega (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) stepped up on short notice and knocked out former champion Frankie Edgar (23-6-1 MMA, 17-6-1 UFC) to seize the No. 1 contender’s position at featherweight. And for a brief second, he nearly got himself a shot at the lightweight title in the chaos before UFC 223.

Ortega was one of several fighters who volunteered to step in when interim champ Tony Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC) injured his knee and withdrew from a headliner against Khabib Nurmagoedov(26-0 MMA, 10-0 UFC) at the pay-per-view event earlier this month.

“I took the fight no matter what, but when you make a decision, you don’t fully think through it,” Ortega, who next meets featherweight champ Max Holloway (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) at UFC 226, told MMAjunkie. “When I started finally thinking through it, I got excited.”

What was so intriguing to the 27-year-old contender? A natural complement of styles that, to him, presented a good challenge and a chance to make a bold statement against the undefeated Dagestan native.

“Not too many people present a good ground game from the bottom,” Ortega said. “They survive a little bit, and it’s kind of boring. But not too many people are attacking from the bottom, hurting with elbows. They don’t bring that kind of game because it takes a long time to develop. Whereas me, I grew up in that situation, where I was always the bottom guy, always getting beat up by these guys. So I had to adapt my game to that.”

In other words, Ortega thought he was the perfect foil to Nurmagomedov’s suffocating top game. The thought that no one had been able to beat the lightweight contender at his own game apparently didn’t cross his mind. Nurmagomedov was good on top, he was good on his back, and that was a good style matchup.

“I was curious as to what was going to happen,” Ortega said.

But alas, the opportunity was not meant to be. The UFC rolled the dice with featherweight champ Holloway and booked him in Ferguson’s slot for the lightweight title. When the gamble backfired and Holloway wasn’t cleared to make weight, lightweight Al Iaquinta (13-4-1 MMA, 8-3 UFC) was recruited on short notice and was dominated by Nurmagomedov over five rounds.

Holloway and Ortega now have their sights set on the featherweight division, facing each other in a pay-per-view co-headliner set for July 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But Ortega hasn’t stopped thinking about facing Nurmagomedov, who’s now No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings.

“It’s on my radar,” he said. “I have a big fight right now, but that one, for sure, it’s on the radar. I have to be successful on July 7, and hopefully, I can make that happen after.”

For more on UFC 226, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

Gallery Photos: Best of Brian Ortega view 22 images

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