Tracy Cortez has stepped up to fight Rose Namajunas at UFC Denver and saved the main event from collapsing after Maycee Barber was forced to pull out of the fight due to severe illness. But today, let’s shine some light on the undefeated flyweight’s troubles this summer. The netizens went into a frenzy over a photograph that showed the Brazilian fighter, Paulo Costa, along with her. At the time, Cortez was single following her breakup with Brian Ortega. And that gave rise to speculations.

Things turned awry when fight fans began to think that Cortez was in a relationship with Costa. But it wasn’t true. The flyweight contender revealed the truth in an interview with Ariel Helwani. Let’s see what she said.

Tracy Cortez was forced to clarify her relationship with Paulo Costa 

In a previous episode of ‘The MMA Hour’, Cortez talked about the time when she was in Brazil, training with Costa and his team. She invited everyone to an Airbnb for dinner and to watch some fights. That was when ‘Borrachinha’ discovered that she was managed by Tiki Ghosn, Costa’s manager. The duo decided to take a selfie and share it with Ghosn. They shared a laugh as the manager texted Costa back, but the trouble began when Cortez returned to the US.

In the States, Cortez revealed that she woke up to Costa’s post, which had their photo together. She said, “It was just like, ‘Happy Friday from Tracy and me,’ literally, and I woke up the next morning, ‘Oh my God.’” Later, Tamara Alves and Costa called up Cortez and told her that they were going to address it. However, instead of addressing the issues, the couple let the rumor mills churn, and so did the American contender. 

Cortez continued, “It is what it is now, there’s no going back. So I didn’t address it, I didn’t care, I said I’m going to run with it too. Have some fun, have a good laugh. And that was it. That was literally it, that was the backstory. A picture from a manager and that was it.”

This was indeed one of the jokes that went crazy on the internet. Cortez claimed that Costa never takes social media seriously. “He doesn’t take it serious, he doesn’t take social media serious, it’s all laughs. I mean, I think people knew [the truth], the fans knew. Nevertheless, who doesn’t love to troll?” But Costa finally had to say something about the picture.

Paulo Costa hits out about allegedly dating Tracy Cortez 

‘The Eraser’ took to X and shared the picture of him and Cortez with a text message in the caption. As things went out of control and fans continued to think that the two were involved in a romantic relationship, he just had to clear out the air around them. He wrote, “Good morning mtfks . I mean me and Tracy are just friends, nothing happened, we just took a selfie for a mutual friend. Stop bullying,” followed by a laughing emoji and a prayer emoji. 

It was also a valuable lesson for the flyweight fighter. Cortez understood that things were destined to go viral wherever there was a picture of her, even though it was a simple selfie. She affirmed that she was going to keep her personal life just to herself. She said, “Me, I am a very private person. I have a very small circle that I consider friends. So anything personal life, I think I’ll just stay to myself from now on. Lesson learned.”

Now, as she gets ready to land against Namajunas, the fight fans have nothing but praise for saving the event at the Ball Arena, Denver. Did you also think that Cortez and Costa were dating each other? Let us know in the comments down below.