Tracy Cortez holds back tears on the scale as she's forced to cut her hair to make weight for UFC Denver main event
07/12/2024 12:46 PM
Fan favourite flyweight Tracy Cortez shed a tear on the scales after making weight for her UFC Denver headliner.
The starlet, who has yet to taste defeat in the UFC octagon, faces former world champion Rose Namajunas tomorrow night in Colorado. Namajunas had been due to face Maycee Barber, but an injury forced her out of the event and Cortez stepped in, much to the delight of viewers.
Cortez is fast becoming one of the most popular female fighters on the roster, garnering over 1million followers during her five-fight run in the promotion. And she just about made the upper limit for non-title flyweight as she made her fight with Namajunas official.
Tracy Cortez dramatically makes weight for UFC Denver showdown
There was drama on the scales at this evening’s final weigh-in for Tracy Cortez’s main event opportunity against Rose Namajunas. After initially missing the upper limit of 126lb by just half a pound, she returned for a second attempt clutching her ponytail, which she had cut off in desperation.
When she returned to the scale, it was announced that she was 126lb, meaning that the fight was fully official. She then faced off with Namajunas for the sole time after her rival had comfortably made 124.5lb within the initial few minutes of their window.
Cortez has not yet commented on the weight issue, but did reshare videos from MMAJunkie of the incident just after it took place. Once she had tipped the scales at 126lb, it confirmed a full slate of fights for tomorrow’s card, with nobody else on the card missing.
Trazy Cortez suffered horror injury that kept her out of UFC return before getting Rose Namajunas call
After an eleventh straight win, and fifth in the UFC, against Jasmine Jasudavicius in September, Cortez was conspicuous in her absence from the octagon for almost the next year. However, she opened up this week about an accident that cost her months of her career in the aftermath of her last outing.
While on an off-road ride in California’s Glamis Dunes, she suffered a severe injury that kept her from competition. Speaking on The MMA Hour, Cortez explained that her absence was becase she "was dealing with some injuries again.”
“Shortly after my last fight, I'm an adrenaline junkie so I like to go off-roading, cliff jumping, I'm an outdoors kind of person,” she explained. “After the fight, my friends were like, 'Hey, we're going to go to Glamis [Dunes] off-roading, can-ams, razors, [etc.]' and we went and we got into a really bad accident.
"I, for whatever reason, was the one that came out the worst. The worst. Everyone was just shaken up and I was bruised, chipped tooth, black eyes. I had almost a hematoma, big bumps, it was bad. It took me some time to recover from that."
