Henry Cejudo lately weighed in on his teammate Tracy Cortez’s defeat towards Rose Namajunas, suggesting that she had the potential to carry out significantly better.
Final Saturday evening, Cortez gave it her all however fell brief on the judges’ scorecards, enduring her first UFC defeat in a grueling five-round battle towards “Thug Rose,” who gained by unanimous resolution.
Cortez was initially gearing up for a bout towards Miranda Maverick at UFC Vegas 94 on July 20. Nevertheless, when Maycee Barber needed to withdraw from the UFC Struggle Night time Denver important occasion resulting from undisclosed causes, Cortez stepped up, accepting the short-notice problem with simply two weeks to organize.
Regardless of the restricted preparation time, the 30-year-old Arizona native went toe-to-toe for the total 25 minutes towards the previous two-time strawweight champion. Nevertheless, her teammate at Struggle Prepared gymnasium, Cejudo, believes that Cortez might have delivered a a lot stronger efficiency with a distinct recreation plan…
Cejudo Believes Cortez Misinterpreted Namajunas’ Technique
Throughout a latest Pound 4 Pound podcast episode with former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, “Triple C” dissected Cortez’s efficiency towards Namajunas. He famous that “Thug Rose” successfully utilized her lateral actions and located higher hanging angles with well-timed takedowns, in the end securing her victory over his teammate.
“Rose was in a position to make use of her lateral actions, decide her photographs, after which finally herald takedowns, which type of shocked me,” Cejudo mentioned. “However I’m not shocked together with her as a result of she did the identical factor to Weili [Zhang] in direction of the top of the spherical to safe the rounds.”
Cejudo additional critiqued that Cortez lacked mindfulness all through the combat and did not capitalize on key takedown alternatives, a misstep that decisively price her the bout.
“Tracy didn’t present up, man. I simply don’t know find out how to say it; man, that’s not the Tracy that we all know. I watched the combat once more, and he or she by no means as soon as tried the takedowns; after she tried one takedown, that’s it, there’s no stage adjustments concerned. I talked to her on Saturday afterward and simply mentioned, ‘Hey, simply preserve your head up, dude. It was an expertise, however I simply know you’re higher than that, Tracy’.”
Cortez started the bout stronger, aiming to counter Namajunas’ velocity and hanging expertise. Though she secured an early takedown, Cortez often discovered herself on the receiving finish, being taken down a number of instances by her opponent all through the combat.
