Tracy Cortez “going to fight my heart out” for late brother at UFC Denver

UFC flyweight contender Tracy Cortez is fighting for her late brother ahead of her first career UFC main event this Saturday.

Cortez will face former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas in the UFC Denver main event. She returns to the Octagon on short notice after Namajunas’s original opponent, Maycee Barber, withdrew from the card due to undisclosed reasons.

It’s a massive spotlight for Cortez as she looks to continue her climb up the flyweight rankings. A win over an opponent of Namajunas’s caliber will cement herself as a rising star in the division.

It’s been a long road to this spotlight for Cortez, and as she prepares for the biggest fight of her career, she has one person on her mind.

Tracy Cortez fighting with a heavy heart at UFC Denver

In a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Cortez explained what she’s fighting for at UFC Denver.

“It was kind of a surreal moment. It took me a while to process it, and even then I have yet to process,” Cortez shared. “As a professional athlete, UFC fighter, that’s our goal. That’s our dream. The things we work so hard for, for years upon years, and being here, it feels like it happened so fast. Overnight…

“I was running and I just looked up, I said ‘This is for you’, you know? For my brother. This is for Jose, for the path that he paved for us. At first, this career was kind of hard for me, because it started out with me wanting to honor him. He paved the way, but he engraved something within me at a young age after his passing, that I didn’t think until years later that I would still have that fire within myself. Being here, having him light that fire in me, it’s almost like we did it. It’s a ‘We did it’ moment. I’m gonna leave my heart out in that cage.”

Jose Cortez passed away in 2011 after suffering from germ cell cancer. Tracy has a tattoo on her arm to memorialize her late brother.

Cortez has won 10 consecutive fights since losing her professional MMA debut in 2017. She’s 5-0 in her UFC career with recent victories over Jasmine Jasudavicius and Melissa Gatto.

As Cortez prepares for the fight of her life, she’s fighting for much more than career accolades. Somewhere, her brother Jose is smiling as she continues to grow in and out of the cage.