Going into UFC 317, Tracy Cortez was haunted by her loss in opposition to Rose Namajunas.
Cortez’s good file contained in the Octagon got here to a crashing halt round this identical time final 12 months when she suffered a unanimous determination defeat in opposition to the two-time flyweight titleholder.
Since then, Cortez has bounced again, incomes a formidable victory in opposition to Viviane Araujo throughout Worldwide Combat Week in Las Vegas. Showing on The Ariel Helwani Present, Cortez detailed how tough it was to shake off the ‘Thug’ Rose struggle and provided some perception into the recommendation that lastly helped her look to the longer term as a substitute of specializing in the previous.
“I’m my worst critic,” Cortez instructed Helwani. “It’s simply not the best way I wished to win—I wished to complete. I wished to set a press release, however I used to be simply listening to my coaches, my cornermen—they’re like, ‘Be affected person.’ The sport plan was to be affected person, as a result of she was quick, she was explosive. So I simply caught to the sport plan.”
“That loss… it type of haunted me. Throughout the camp, I saved telling the coaches, ‘What if this occurs within the struggle?’ Like, that occurred within the Rose struggle—you already know, sure situations. And Santino, he seemed me lifeless within the eyes, he goes, ‘Hey, that’s gone. That doesn’t exist no extra. It’s the previous—you’re proper right here, proper now.’”
Cortez’s win over Araujo bumped her up two spots within the girls’s flyweight division, placing her within the No. 8 spot within the rankings. Inching her method towards the highest 5, there are many thrilling matchups for Cortez’s return to the Octagon. After all, that’s assuming she will keep wholesome lengthy sufficient to struggle greater than as soon as per 12 months.
