Tracy Cortez says a trilogy with Erin Blanchfield is coming after 1-1 scoreline

UFC women’s flyweight contender Tracy Cortez is convinced her second-act rivalry with Erin Blanchfield is not finished. After their UFC series is currently knotted at 1-1, Cortez says a trilogy fight is inevitable and that she wants the rematch to settle what she believes still belongs in her own momentum swing.

Cortez and Blanchfield first met in the Octagon with each fighter getting a result that changed the posture of the matchup. Blanchfield later evened the overall series, submitting Cortez in their most recent UFC encounter, which came in November at UFC 322. With that win, the head-to-head score returned to parity, leaving the “who truly finishes the story” question open.

Before UFC 322, Cortez had also tasted success against Blanchfield under a different promotional umbrella. Per the reporting, Blanchfield previously avenged a 2019 split-decision loss to Cortez when they met in Invicta FC competition. That extra layer matters because it frames their rivalry as something that has already survived outside the UFC and then reasserted itself once they were both competing at the same time on the sport’s biggest stage.

Cortez’s confidence in a third meeting is tied to more than just the personal storyline. She pointed to what she believes went wrong in her last performance and what she plans to fix for the next one. According to MMA Junkie’s account of Cortez’s comments, she felt she deviated from the original game plan by initiating a takedown that she believes pulled her out of the flow she wanted. In her view, Blanchfield capitalized on that mistake, and therefore a rematch is likely to revisit the matchup with sharper structure.

The next step for Cortez is also immediate. She is scheduled to fight this Saturday at UFC 329 in Las Vegas against rising contender Wong Cong, according to the same reporting. That matters because it clarifies the timeline, showing that while the trilogy is “in the future” for Cortez, the sport still requires her to earn her next win before any longer-term planning can become reality.

Cortez’s own summary of her recent run includes both positives and setbacks. She has described the work behind the scenes to improve her striking, including training stints that focus on that specific area. Even with the loss to Blanchfield and other results that have not gone her way in the UFC recently, the message from Cortez is that the improvements are real and should translate into clearer decision-making during fights.

For Blanchfield, the prospect of a trilogy is the natural follow-up to a rivalry that has already produced two distinct outcomes. For the flyweight division as a whole, a third meeting between two fighters who have already split their UFC results adds clarity to a crowded contender picture, even if the exact timing depends on matchmaking, rankings movement, and what happens in the near term at UFC 329.

What to watch next is whether Cortez can correct the strategic issues she says affected her last outing, particularly around takedown commitment and returning to her intended plan. If she delivers, the path to a trilogy against Blanchfield becomes less hypothetical and more like the next logical chapter in a rivalry that keeps producing answers only to create new questions. If not, the trilogy conversation will likely wait, because the UFC’s flyweight title chase does not pause for unfinished narratives.