If one thing has slowed down Tracy Cortez from rising up the ranks in the UFC, it’s been her long layoffs where she’s been out of action for at least nine months on four different occasions.
The latest incident happened after Cortez defeated Jasmine Jasudavicius at the first-ever Noche UFC card this past September and her post-fight celebration ended with another lengthy absence from the sport. As she gears up to face Rose Namajunas in the UFC Denver main event on Saturday, Cortez revealed that an off-roading accident in a dune buggy left her unable to compete for several months.
“I was dealing with some injuries again,” Cortez said on The MMA Hour. “Shortly after my last fight, I’m an adrenaline junkie so I like to go off-roading, cliff jumping, I’m an outdoors kind of person, right? After the fight, my friends were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go to Glamis [Dunes] off-roading, can-ams, razors, [etc.]’ and we went and we got into a really bad accident.
“I, for whatever reason, was the one that came out the worst. The worst. Everyone was just shaken up and I was bruised, chipped tooth, black eyes. I had almost a hematoma, big bumps [on the back of my head], it was bad. It took me some time to recover from that.”
The Imperial Sand Dunes, also known as Glamis, are the largest mass of sand dunes in California and a popular recreational spot for off-road enthusiasts.
Unfortunately for Cortez, she suffered a slew of injuries after she was riding in a vehicle that crashed and ended up rolling several times in succession after the initial impact.
“We were in the dunes and it was just a bunch of dust and we ended up crashing inside, like, a ditch,” Cortez explained. “So I [hit] hard and I didn’t have my seatbelt on. When we hit the ditch, we ended up rolling.
“There’s two seatbelts, there’s a waist one and then a chest one. I so happened to have the chest one [attached], it’s like a dog collar, it’s nothing big. I didn’t click my helmet so I’m holding onto the chest one for dear life and we’re rolling. It’s like neverending. I see my helmet come off and I’m like, ‘Oh shit’ and I just blacked out. It was really bad.”
Cortez says it took her several months to get through the ordeal, which is why she didn’t book another fight until July — 10 months after her most recent UFC win.
“A few months [to recover],” Cortez said. “I fought in September and I just started getting into it again. I feel good right now. I’m healthy. I feel great right now.”
Because she’s always been an adventure seeker, Cortez really had to take a step back from her outside-the-cage activities after an accident that could have easily gone even worse for her.
“My team and my manager were like, ‘Do you need a chaperone? Do you need someone to babysit you?’” Cortez said. “I was like, I just love to live life. I got one and I’m beyond blessed and I love having a good time. I love going on adventures.
“But this time around, I said I’m just going to stay home. No more trips. I’m just going to wait until the end of the year to treat myself to bungee jumping or something.”
That experience definitely taught Cortez a valuable lesson, although she’s not going to stay away from risk-taking activities all together.
Instead, Cortez promises that she’s going to cut down how many times she gets involved in those kinds of perilous adventures and really pick and choose her spots moving forward.
“I think it was after the accident, I think that was the most severe injury that I’ve ever gotten in my life [other than] a surgery or a muscle tear or whatever I was going through,” Cortez said. “That accident made me realize, and also talking to my mentor, my coaches, they’re like, ‘Your body is your job. You’re putting yourself at risk by not fighting because you’re getting these injuries.’ They kind of really lectured me.
“I said all right, let me respect my coaches who spend so much time on me and just compose myself as a professional athlete.”