UFC girls’s flyweight Tracy Cortez (11-1) enters the most important battle of her life on Saturday as she headlines UFC on ESPN 59 in opposition to former two-time strawweight titleholder Rose Namajunas. Cortez has lofty aspirations and targets 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 only a few. All of them laid the way in which 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 ladies. Cortez plans to surpass Rousey’s accomplishments.
“Everybody’s ready or the following Ronda, for the following Joanna [Jędrzejczyk]. Somebody unimaginable like Weili [Zhang] to remain on prime and show themselves. Somebody like Rose to trip 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 way in which Ronda paved the way in which for ladies’s MMA. Nobody has completed it like she has. I say this humbly, I hope to surpass that,” continued Cortez.
Cortez will enter the octagon on Saturday at Ball Enviornment in Denver, Colorado ranked eleventh within the girls’s flyweight division. Namajunas will make the stroll to the cage ranked sixth. It is going to be Cortez’ first UFC essential occasion, however she loves having strain to carry out.
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“I thrive off of strain. I’ve at all times been judged and missed and only a fairly face. I am right here now. The report speaks for itself, and I thrive off of it. I find it irresistible. 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 trying 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 in opposition to these women which are killers. Killers. Black bets, they cannot 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 power 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.”
