In the UFC, Tracy Cortez has always maintained her star status as one of the most well-known female fighters on the roster. Fans liked her captivating fighting style, and her wins over contenders like Melissa Gatto and Jasmine Jasudavicius helped shape the star she is today. However, along with putting on impressive performances, the 31-year-old Arizona native also gained stardom through several viral moments, and her public breakup with Brian Ortega. On that list, Cortez facing Rose Namajunas at UFC Fight Night Denver might be one of her most talked-about moments ever.

Before even getting into the cage, the flyweight contender cut her hair to make weight for the bout, which sparked a massive discussion among fans as they praised her dedication. However, another big viral moment waited for her inside the Octagon. During the fight, Namajunas actually knocked her eyelashes off, and that clip quickly made the rounds. So, as Tracy Cortez prepares to face Erin Blanchfield at UFC 322, let’s look back at one of the moments that helped make her famous. 

The viral moment: Rose Namajunas punches Tracy Cortez’s eyelash off 

In 2024, Tracy Cortez surged into the flyweight rankings with an undefeated record, and because of that rise, she earned a matchup against former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas in the UFC Fight Night Colorado main event. Fans rightly viewed the fight as the Arizona native’s gateway to a title shot, but inside the cage, ‘Thug’ Rose proved a little too much to handle.

Namajunas completely dominated Cortez in both the stand-up and on the ground, landing 119 total strikes, with 96 of them significant. But in one of the heated exchanges, the former 115-pound queen dropped Cortez with a clean 1–2 combination that sent her crashing to the mat. At first, it looked like a regular knockdown, but moments later, fans noticed she was missing her eyelashes.

The replay clearly showed ‘Thug’ Rose’s punch glancing off Cortez’s eyelash, which Cortez later admitted was artificially applied and flew off when she hit the canvas. Although Namajunas handed Cortez her first professional loss, Cortez losing her eyelashes somehow became a bigger talking point, and she ended up addressing it in several interviews because of how unusual the moment was.

Still, as unusual as it looked, another question came up: Was it painful for her? Julianna Peña actually answered that in an MMA Hour interview, where she talked about getting stabbed by her own eyelashes while discussing Cortez’s viral moment. The former bantamweight champ said, “I got my eyelashes done in training. Fake eyelash extensions, so they had to stick on each individual lash. When one of them broke off, it stabbed me in the eyeball and it was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever had in my life.”

And that honestly sounds extremely painful. Now that brings up another question: If Cortez knew her eyelashes could be a potential risk in the fight, why did she get them in the first place?

Why Tracy Cortez wore fake eyelashes during UFC fight  

The currently #8-ranked female flyweight contender never explicitly opened up about why she chose to fight with fake eyelashes. But in an interview with George Janko, she detailed the moment and revealed that she went to a very good makeup artist who planted the eyelashes firmly. According to her, they were actually quite strong, and it was only Rose Namajunas’ precision that made them fall. Otherwise, they would have stayed on.

“I actually flew my girl out so she could do my lashes… They were like fresh, they were individual, everyone thought they were strips… I could rub my eyes and they wouldn’t come off… The precision this girl had to have so they could all come off, wow,” Cortez said. But that’s not all, as before her UFC 317 fight against Viviane Araujo, she again got into a verbal exchange with a fan online, questioning her eyelashes.

In one of her highlight videos, a fan tried to troll her in the comments, writing, “Don’t wear the eyelashes this time lol,” to which Tracy Cortez replied, “y’all really think I care what everyone gotta say about my lashes lol.” Her blunt response suggests that she just loves wearing makeup to the cage and doesn’t really care if anything happens.

That said, as the Arizona native gets ready to step inside the octagon on November 15th against a very dangerous Erin Blanchfield, do you think she could pull off another viral highlight? Let us know in the comments section below.