UFC free fight: Tracy Cortez moves octagon record to 5-0, earns main event opportunity

No one's solved the Tracy Cortez puzzle inside the octagon, and that's why she finds herself in Saturday's UFC on ESPN 59 main event.

No one has been able to solve the puzzle that is Tracy Cortez inside the octagon so far, and that’s why she finds herself in a UFC main event this weekend.

Cortez (11-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) will look to take her career to the next level Saturday when she takes on former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas in a women’s flyweight headliner at UFC on ESPN 59, which goes down at Ball Arena in Denver (ESPN, ESPN+).

Although she was not the original opponent for Namajunas and filled in for Maycee Barber, the chance to get top billing on a card was not far off for Cortez, who has largely had her way with the competition in her UFC run to this point. That includes her most recent bout, which was a unanimous decision win over Jasmine Jasudavicius at Noche UFC in September.

Jasudavicius entered the matchup as a winner in five of her previous six fights, but Cortez put a halt to that as she landed more than 100 significant strikes en route to 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scorecards.

Relive the performance from Cortez in the video above in advance of her main event showdown with Namajunas this weekend at UFC on ESPN 59.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 59.