UFC girls’s flyweight Tracy Cortez (11-1) enters the largest combat of her life on Saturday as she headlines UFC on ESPN 59 towards former two-time strawweight titleholder Rose Namajunas. Cortez has lofty aspirations and objectives that exceed a win over Namajunas (12-6).
There have been a number of girls pioneers within the sport: Tara LaRosa, Shelby Walker, Gina Carano, and Miesha Tate, to call just some. All of them laid the best way for Ronda Rousey to place girls’s MMA on the mainstream map. Rousey was topped the inaugural UFC girls’s bantamweight champion in 2012 and went on to set practically each UFC report for girls. Cortez plans to surpass Rousey’s accomplishments.
“Everybody’s ready or the subsequent Ronda, for the subsequent Joanna [Jędrzejczyk]. Somebody unbelievable like Weili [Zhang] to remain on high and show themselves. Somebody like Rose to journey that like Ronda did, and even myself now that I am right here,” Cortez mentioned throughout an look on The MMA Hour.
“I am very grateful for the best way Ronda paved the best way for girls’s MMA. Nobody has performed it like she has. I say this humbly, I hope to surpass that,” continued Cortez.
Cortez will enter the octagon on Saturday at Ball Area in Denver, Colorado ranked eleventh within the girls’s flyweight division. Namajunas will make the stroll to the cage ranked sixth. Will probably be Cortez’ first UFC foremost occasion, however she loves having strain to carry out.
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“I thrive off of strain. I’ve all the time been judged and ignored and only a fairly face. I am right here now. The report speaks for itself, and I thrive off of it. I adore it. I genuinely love the strain. I really feel like I carry out. I embrace it to the fullest,” Cortez mentioned.
A win over Namajunas would put Cortez squarely in contender standing, however she’s seeking to be greater than only a contender. She plans to be the most effective.
“I see myself being the most effective. I look again at my fights towards these women which can be killers. Killers. Black bets, they can not submit me. I am nonetheless in disbelief. That is me? Oh my God. It is simply a type of issues the place I noticed myself, I used to be watching footage of myself and I mentioned, ‘Man, I’ve the flexibility to be the most effective. I’ve what it takes,'” Cortez mentioned. “I have been coaching for this. I have been getting ready for this.”
