Roxanne Modafferi’s fighting days are over and there are a lot of memories that go along with it.
Reflecting On Her Last Fight
‘The Happy Warrior’ would happily retire in her 50th MMA fight after losing to Casey O’Neill at UFC 271. Despite the split decision loss, Modafferi thought she won. But, win or lose, Modafferi managed to keep a smile on her face after a hard-fought battle.
“I kind of thought I won,” Modafferi told MiddleEasy and others at the UFC 271 post-fight presser. “I know we both hit each other a lot. I hit her with some great stuff and I took her down a couple of times. I thought I might’ve gotten the victory. She also hit me a bunch.
“I was happy while they were doing the split, although I wanted the victory. But congrats to her. She’s a really strong competitor.”
Roxy Reveals The Biggest Highlight Of Her Career
Moving on from ‘the last dance’ of what is quite the career, Modafferi would be asked what the most memorable moment of her career was.
It took a second for the WMMA pioneer to think of something. Quickly thinking of her 46 pro fights, there is one moment that stands above the rest: fighting for the title and the reception that went along with it.
“Oh gosh, I’m not sure.” Modafferi said. “Fighting for the title was amazing. Oh, that was it. So I fought Nico Montanio for the title and I tried so hard and just, I gave every ounce of my strength against that. And then she was the winner and I was sad.
I was standing there. Then, Daniel Cormier was like, don’t go. I was like, alright. So I’m standing there and everyone’s celebrating and I’m like super bummed. And then Daniel goes over to me and the crowd starts cheering and he just smiled. The crowd was cheering so loudly. I was like, oh, that’s so cool. Like, they love me.
“I’m just like a weird, awkward, like anime dork who tries really hard as a martial artist. And they’re cheering for me. That was so cool.”
Modafferi challenged Nicco Montano for the inaugural women’s flyweight championship back in 2017. Much like her fight with O’Neill, she’d come up short on the judges scorecards. Modafferi would win over the crowd in both fights.
Special Thanks
In her closing remarks for her last fight, ‘The Happy Warrior’ would thank her team for helping her for this last dance of hers.
“I just want to take a moment to thank my team, Syndicate MMA, and my head coach John Wood, my strength and conditioning coach Lorenzo Pavlica, Mike Pyle. Also, Johnny Parsons. He really helped me evolve in this last camp. And Chris Roman, my fiance.”
