UFC women’s flyweight Tracy Cortez is ranked No. 13 in the women’s 125-pound division and only fought one time in 2022. She was expected to face Amanda Ribas at UFC Orlando on December 3. Shortly after officially weighing in, Cortez was removed from the fight card for undisclosed reasons.
The fiancé of No. 3 ranked featherweight contender Brian Ortega opened up about her mental health and her UFC Orlando removal in a video posted to Instagram.
“I know after my fight I’ve been a little MIA here on social media… I’m gonna be as honest as I can be. I’m currently in a place in my life where I’ve just been going through it, physically & mentally,” she said.
“I want to say I haven’t been in the right head space since sometime in August. Life has been testing me under circumstances that I least expected. I’m currently healing, i’m prioritizing my mental health! & just taking life a day at a time,” Cortez continued.
“I keep getting asked when I’m going to be scheduled for another fight & in all honestly I don’t know BUT I will be back, strong, better & with a purpose far greater then I’ve ever had before!!!! I don’t quit. I’ve never been one to give up. I’m a fighter. I’m a warrior! I’ve been fighting with battles & life since I could remember & this is just another stage in life that I will come out victorious in 🙏🏽✨ I don’t sit & wait for the storm to pass, I walk through it with my head high!
“For anyone struggling with life right now, don’t quit. Take life a day at a time. Believe that everything happens for a reason, although we may not understand it right now or ever. Don’t lose hope 🤍 the sun always shines when the storm passes.”
In another video, Cortez said that she’s ‘healing’ and that being pulled from the UFC Orlando fight card ‘broke me.’
“So, I don’t even know how to start this video,” she said. “I want to be very vulnerable but I also — to a certain extent because social media knows how to tear people down….
“I don’t know if you guys have noticed much, but I haven’t really been too active here on socials,” Cortez said. “And that’s because I am in a stage, a season in my life where I am healing. I’m healing and I’ve been going through it on a personal level. Yeah, I’ve been healing, and accountability is a hard pill to swallow and a lot of people aren’t able to take accountability of their actions.
“You know it’s always easy to find the easy way out, excuses, you know, and I’m changing everything that I thought I was once,” she added. “I’m trying to become a better person. I’m trying. Not that I was bad but I’m trying to move intentionally, I’m trying to move purely.”
“I’m gonna say I’ve been going through this since August,” she continued. “I went through my camp extremely depressed. I went through my camp, despite how my mental state was, I still gave it 110 percent. I showed up and it was hard. Everyone around me in my circle saw, and getting pulled out the way that I did, uh, hurt me, it broke me. Because we give everything, we leave it all, we give everything that we possibly can and we leave it all, every ounce of us in every session
“I feel like training camp takes a toll on me, and I think every fighter to a certain level really, spiritually, physically, obviously mentally it takes a toll on us,” Cortez continued. “And I gave that all, I gave it all I had and not fighting has kind of left me a little lost. But I’m okay, I’m keeping myself healthy, I’m making my mental state, my state of mind, my mental health, I’m making it a priority.
“So I just want to thank everyone, for those that showed support because there’s a lot that was just rude and tearing me down,” she concluded. “And granted it’s part of the game, I know what I signed up for. But to those that supported me, and have been so kind to me and just haven’t left me in the process of not fighting and whatever, I want to thank you and I love you guys and I’m gonna continue to heal. And that’s it.
“You guys, we’re human, we’re human despite the numbers of followers we have. We’re humans, we feel, we go through things too, you know?”
Tracy Cortez talks mental health and UFC Orlando removal: ‘It broke me’
