Tom Aspinall reacts to "entertaining sequence" of Tracy Cortez chopping hair to make weight for UFC Denver clash: "#Science"
Tracy Cortez had a brief scare at the weigh-ins for her women's flyweight bout with Rose Namajunas. After failing to make weight by half a pound on her first attempt, the streaking 125-pounder cut off a sizable chunk of her hair to hit the non-championship limit of 126 pounds.
The moment was noted by UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who took to X/Twitter to share his thoughts on the entire situation. At first, he seemed to acknowledge the scientific basis for Cortez's decision to chop off some of her hair in an effort to make weight.
"#Science"
However, after tweeting an image of Cortez on the scale, he subsequently questioned why, if her hair was what she cut off to weigh less, she was still holding her chopped-off locks on the scale. The interim titleholder then joked that her hair might as well have remained untouched.
"Tracey Cortez cuts her hair, to make weight. To later, hold her hair in her hand on the scales... it might as well have stayed on her head lol"
Fortunately for Cortez, her bout with Namajunas, a former strawweight champion and women's MMA legend, will take place at the scheduled flyweight mark. A potential reason behind her near-miss on the scale could be that Cortez was not originally Namajunas' opponent.
'Thug Rose' was initially set to face Maycee Barber, who subsequently withdrew from the bout due to health-related issues. Meanwhile, Cortez was originally scheduled to take on Miranda Maverick seven days later at UFC Vegas 94.
Given that she was initially planning on a July 20 fight instead of on the 13th, her weigh-in struggles are more understandable.
Tracy Cortez has missed weight before
Unfortunately, this isn't Tracy Cortez's first lapse on the scale. She previously competed in the women's bantamweight division before committing to a run at women's flyweight. However, her return to the 125-pound division, which came against Justine Kish, saw her miss weight by a half-pound for the non-title limit.
Check out Tracy Cortez's weigh-in mishap three years ago:
Nevertheless, she went on to beat Kish via split-decision and hasn't officially missed weight since. Furthermore, she has also committed to developing a leaner physique to facilitate future weight cuts.