Watch: Brian Ortega gives away his earnings to fighters on Team Volkanovski after winning $10k from the coaches' challenge at TUF 29

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Brian Ortega with his TUF 29 team [Image courtesy: @briantcity on Instagram]

Brian Ortega beat rival coach Alexander Volkanovski in the coaches' challenge of the 29th season of The Ultimate Fighter. While Ortega won $10k from the challenge, every fighter on his team received $1500.

In an admirable move, Ortega then decided to give away his entire earnings to the fighters on Team Volkanovski. Explaining the motivation behind his decision, Brian Ortega said:

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"I genuinely do care about every fighter in this house. Cause I know what everyone is fighting for, I know what this means to everyone. I will share with anyone. I'm the kind of guy that if I have a dime, you have a nickel."

Take a look at the young fighters being overwhelmed by Ortega's generosity from the six-minute mark of the video.

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Brian Ortega beat Alexander Volkanovski in a closely contested game of Cornhole to earn $10k. Cornhole is a popular backyard drinking game where the objective is to throw a corn kernel-filled bag into a 6-inch hole cut into a tilted platform.

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Brian Ortega had a tough childhood

Brian Ortega grew up in Los Angeles, where his father had moved as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, followed by his mother shortly after. Things went wrong for 'T-City' early in his life and he ended up spending some time in jail. Worse still, Ortega's two sisters were fighting methamphetamine and alcohol addiction.

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Since his parents toiled on an everyday basis to keep them afloat, Brian Ortega did not get much family time as a child. While he has no complaints, Ortega acknowledges the hardships he faced early in his life. Speaking of his upbringing in the Los Angeles projects, 'T-City' said in an interview with MMA Fighting:

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“I’m not saying my parents were bad when I say these things. They were busy. They had to work, they had to do their things to keep us afloat, so we didn’t have that luxury for all of us to sit down. My house was a revolving door. You walk in, you walk out, you get whatever you can eat, you leave, you go hang out with friends. I’m on my mission, my sister’s on another mission, my dad is working trying to provide, my mom is trying to do the same thing. And somehow we’re all co-existing with each other. My house always had at least 14 people in it. And one bathroom. So I didn’t really want to be home.”

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