TRACY CORTEZ is the glamorous wrestler on the cusp of fighting for UFC gold.
And she’ll look to lay the foundations for a title shot TONIGHT at UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden.
Cortez’s second octagon outing of the year will see her rematch Erin Blanchfield on the prelims of the historic MMA card.
Martial arts isn’t a new thing for 31-year-old Cortez, the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants.
She began her mixed martial arts journey at the tender age of 14 after watching her older brother, Jose, compete in the sport.
Jose would sadly be forced to shelve his dreams of becoming a UFC fighter due to germ cell cancer, which would claim his life in 2011.
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Tracy got a tattoo in honour of her sibling’s passing, which has been a driving force for her ever since.
She said: “Every time I feel tired or I feel fatigued or I question anything, I think like, damn, my brother fought with cancer in his heart and he didn’t give up.
“He fought through it. I’m perfectly healthy. I’m more than capable to do what I’m doing. This is easy work. That’s a huge motivator for me.”
Tracy rattled off three straight wins on the amateur scene before being signed by Invicta FC in 2017, although she would end up losing her professional debut.
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But she’d bounce back with five straight wins, which earned her a spot on Dana White’s Contenders Series.
She punched her ticket to the promotion with a decision win over Mariya Agapova in July 2019 and would surge up the 125lbs ranks with another rattle off another five straight victories.
Her momentum, however, was stopped in its tracks by former strawweight queen Rose Namajunas last July.
Tracy would take the best part of a year out after discovering she had three tumours in her abdomen, which, thankfully, weren’t cancerous.
But she looked like she hadn’t skipped a beat in her June return to the win column against Vivane Araujo at UFC 317 in June.
Tracy has been on the radar of hardcore MMA fans for several years.
But casuals, and indeed people not at all familiar with the sport, best know her for her massive social media channels, which exploded after she went viral for CUTTING HER HAIR to make weight.
She boasts a whopping 1.4MILLION followers on Instagram, which she uses to update her followers about her daily ongoings.
And she treats them to as many sizzling snaps as she does photos and videos of her training.
Instagram used to be a place where she shared happy snaps of herself and two-time featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega.
The couple started dating in 2021 and quickly became smitten with one another, so much so that Ortega got Tracy’s name tattooed inside his lip.
They got engaged after less than 12 months and seemed on course to be MMA’s “it couple” for several years.
But they went their separate ways in early 2023 for as of yet unspecified reasons.
Tracy is currently single and recently gave some advice to those wishing to be her new beau.
She said: “Please don’t shoot your shot. Even if you were to shoot your shot, you’ll just f***ing miss.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I gotta catch a vibe. You gotta catch me in person.
“I gotta feel your energy, we’ve gotta have like that connection – that eye to eye contact. That’s just how I am.”
She added: “People have this persona of me like, ‘Oh my gosh, I bet she’s probably like aggressive. I’m telling you, I have the biggest chicken heart.
“I’m like such a f***ing sissy and my coaches know that.
“It takes a lot to get me to react. I’m a very patient person. So you just gotta catch me in person. Don’t shoot your shot online. You’ll be wasting your time.”
Dating will be the last thing on Cortez’s mind when she throws down with Blanchfield, whom she beat en route to the UFC, at MSG.
She said of the rematch: “I knew it was going to happen eventually. It was just a matter of when.
“I don’t mind it. It’s part of the job. I’m not really fazed by it at all.”
She added: “I think she’s done an incredible job in her career.
“I’ve seen her and we both started roughly around the same time, we fought each other back in Invicta, and she’s grown, she’s evolved.
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“I can say I have as well. We’re both very much different fighters so what happened the first fight it’ll be nothing like that first fight.
“It would be a lot more exciting.”
