TRACY’S REDIBLE
THERE IS strength through adversity – and then there is Tracy Cortez.
The rising flyweight star, 27, had the UFC logo tattooed on her shoulder more than 10 years ago.
However, the inking was no bold prediction from a cocky teenager but part of a tribute to her brother Jose, who is pictured in his favourite UFC T-shirt just before the MMA prospect passed away from cancer in January 2011.
Inspired by her eldest sibling, Cortez, from Phoenix, Arizona, began training for life inside the cage the following year, but not before she had been kicked out of home.
She told sponsors Live Fit Apparel: “I was out of the house when I was 17, so working and busting my ass are not new to me. When my dad kicked me out my brother had just passed away and I was being a rebel. Doing things a 16-17-year-old girl should not be doing. I was f***ing up, I was going down a wrong path.
“My mum understood what I was doing, blocking my emotions, but my dad didn’t understand that.
“My dad’s mentality was, ‘If you are not going to respect me or my rules, get the f*** out the house’.
“My mum’s mentality was, ‘She is a young girl and she doesn’t understand why her brother, her hero, just died and we can’t leave her alone’. My dad said to get out and she couldn’t say anything as they are traditional Mexican. But I always had my mum’s support.”
Cortez (right) has found a home inside the octagon, racking up three wins in the UFC since earning her spot with victory on president Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019.
Last weekend, at UFC Vegas 24, she showed all her toughness to see off the challenge of Justine Kish, making sure she was on the right side of a split decision from the judges. And you almost believe Cortez, who also lost her mother to cancer in 2016, when she says Kish would have had to “kill” her to get her to quit in the cage.
She said: “I was very confident in there, I was very comfortable in there.
“I was able to stand up when I wanted and I took it to the ground whenever I wanted, so I’m happy with that. I have no quit in me. I got heart and if you knock me down, I’m going to get back up. I’m not one to stay down.”
UP NEXT UFC 261, Sunday, 3am. A full house in Jacksonville, Florida, will be on hand to see Kamaru Usman defend his welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal.
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