Tracy Cortez: What Happened, Jasmine pulled your what?

18/09/2023 21:21

Tracy Cortez made her highly-anticipated return to Octagon action this past weekend at Noche UFC.

Cortez picked up a decision victory over Jasmine Jasudavicius on the preliminary card. It was the 29-year-old's first fight back since May of 2022. Speaking on The MMA Hour today, Cortez discussed her return from a lengthy layoff. As to why she was inactive for so long, Cortez pointed to personal issues as the reason.

"Just a lot of personal issues, life problems, dealing with health, injuries, making sure I'm In the right state of mind, everything," Cortez said.

"Life got in the way. I tore my PEC really bad earlier in the year. And then as it was getting better, I want to say in end of March, I had surgery on my hand. After I had surgery on my hand, I started running a lot, doing more- tore my MCL. So just little injuries here and there. Finally I healed a little bit.

"Not fully from my hand, but I healed. Took off to Brazil. Ended up training in Natal, Brazil, at the Pitbull Academy. I was there for a while. I learned, I evolved. I grew so much and then came back. My coaches saw me as a different athlete after that. They saw how I grew in just a matter of weeks of being out there."

Hair Pull from Jasudavicius?

During her fight with Jasudavicius, there were some allegations that Cortez's hair was actually pulled. Cortez claimed that Jasudavicius actually pulled her hair, kicked her illegally, and the pair proceeded to exchange words in the middle of the fight.

"She did pull my hair, yeah. There was a moment where we're clinching, and her fingers are in my hair, and I'm like, what the - ? I was like, no. And I'm defending, and then she goes and grabs the other side, and she's pulling in the back of my braid here, and I feel it, and you see me there's a different angle on Twitter, a top angle, and you see where my hair is getting pulled, and when she lets go, that's where I get head kicked.

"She follows it up with a kick, and I'm looking at her, and I didn't even say nothing yet. I'm just looking at her like, are you serious right now? You know what you did. And she follows it with, 'I didn't kick you, or I didn't f###ing pull your hair.' I was like, no, you pulled my f###ing hair.  We're professional here. But that one did bother me."

When asked if she believed the hair-pulling was an accident, Cortez seemed to indicate that she believes Jasudavicius did it intentionally.

"I don't know.  I just know, I've never pulled hair in there. With the clinch and everything that we get into.  It's, in my opinion, not an accident."