Tracy Cortez is set for a significant step up in competition this weekend when she takes on Rose Namajunas in the main event when the UFC rolls into Denver, Colorado, on Saturday night.
Cortez, who is riding an e11-fight winning streak into this bout, was initially scheduled to face Miranda Maverick a week later in Las Vegas. When Namajunas lost her original opponent Maycee Barber to injury, the opportunity of a headline slot opposite a former champion was one that Cortez couldn’t turn down.
30-year-old Cortez has won all five of her fights inside the Octagon since signing with the UFC back in 2019 off the back of a win over Mariya Agapova on Dana White’s Contender Series. While she is on an impressive winning streak, this will be the first time she faces an opponent ranked inside the top 10 in the UFC’s flyweight division.
Speaking on his podcast Weighing In this week, Josh Thomson was asked by his co-host on “Big” John McCarthy if he thinks taking this fight was a good decision by Tracy Cortez.
I don’t think it’s a good fight for her,” said the former UFC welterweight. “No disrespect to her, I don’t think that…after her last fight against (Jasmine) Jasudavicius or whatever her name is…I think what I saw in that fight was in the later rounds like two-and-a-half/three rounds she started to slow down to the point where…Rose is not that fighter.
'She Will Not Slow Down' - Josh Thomson On Namajunas
“Thug” Rose won the UFC strawweight championship in 2017 by knocking out longtime champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. During her UFC career, she has won four five-round main events by unanimous decision.
Thomson believes that experience of the championship rounds should make the difference come Saturday night.
Rose has been in plenty of five-round fights, she’s trained for five-round fights,” Thomson continued. “She will not slow down in rounds three and four.
Thomson also believes that Cortez may be a little out of her depth when she tries to strike with the former UFC strawweight champion.
She’s got the power to make Rose respect her, I just don’t know if she knows how to get in on the reach. Like she slid in on the Jasudavicius girl with those straight rights then follow up with the left hook, but Rose is a different level of striking”.