A women’s flyweight bout between Top 10 ranked contenders Tracy Cortez (12-3) and Wang Cong (9-1) is the featured fight on Saturday’s UFC 329 early preliminary fight card.
Cortez will enter the fight looking to rebound from a submission loss to Erin Blanchfield in her last outing in November. Coming off a loss changed the way Cortez has prepared for Cong. She’s not just out to win fights, she’s going in there to ‘hurt these girls.’
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“I would say training is a little different. I’m training with a lot more purpose. Where before I was training and not that I wasn’t training hard, but I think being here is just a different level. Coming back from a defeat does make it a little different,” Cortez told Stake.
“I’m definitely training extremely hard to make a statement. Extremely hard. I know putting on a great performance in this fight could mean that with two more fights I could be next for that belt. Not just winning but dominating. And I’m going in there to dominate,” she said.
“Like I’m going in there to hurt these girls from here on out. I’m not just going to try to play it safe and, you know, wait till I win a round. I’m going to go in there to hurt these girls.”
Cortez sees Cong as primarily a striker that throws two-punch combos and believes her wrestling is going to cause her Chinese opponent some problems.
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“Everyone knows [Wang Cong] she’s a great striker, but I think she’s a one or two punch striker, so she’s either going to throw one hard punch or two hard punches. I personally think I’m faster. I think I throw a lot more volume. And I think my wrestling is going to also change a lot of how people think the fight is going to go and play out,” she said.
