UFC Orlando Removal ‘Broke’ Cortez

While we still don’t know why Tracy Cortez was removed from her last fight, the flyweight fighter released a long video detailing recent struggles with her mental health.

Tracy Cortez is a hot 10-1 women’s flyweight prospect with a pretty bright looking future in the sport. She’s quickly become a fan favorite, and her relationship with featherweight contender Brian Ortega has increased her visibility a lot too.

But not everything has been great for Cortez behind the scenes. The 29-year-old was recently removed from her fight against Amanda Ribas at UFC Orlando earlier in December, and we’re still unsure as to exactly why. And in a new video uploaded to her Instagram account, Tracy opened up about her mental health, which sounds like it’s been suffering over the past couple of months.

“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 continued. “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. 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 said. “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. 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?”

Here’s hoping Tracy sorts things out and finds a balanced place where she can find both happiness in her life and professional success in the cage.