Roxanne “The Happy Warrior” Modafferi will be hanging up the gloves after she competes in her 50th fight! (Including her 5 TUF fights)

You may be hearing a lot about how Roxanne Modafferi is a “pioneer” and an “OG”. And it can not be overstated enough how true and accurate those terms are.

Roxanne had her first fight in 2003! The same month she debuted, Matt Hughes was defending his title against the fighter turned referee, Frank Trigg. On a main card that featured Tank Abbott!! There are many women who deserve credit for being trailblazers in women’s MMA, but one of those women is without a doubt Roxanne Modafferi. Women in MMA is so common nowadays we almost take it for granted! But it wasn’t that long ago when Dana said women would never fight in the UFC.

And there would have been women who were the first women in their gyms. That is what then leads to two, and three, and so on! And Roxanne is one of those who would have built the foundation needed for women to become permanent fixtures of the MMA world.

Roxanne really feels like an old school fighter. Someone who became successful by being extremely dedicated to their craft and having really clean martial arts technique. But more importantly, they are the fighters whose best attribute was their character. They are strong-willed individuals who never quit, kept working on bettering themselves and we see that strong will in their fights. And we call them scrappy, or tough, or exciting. But what they are showing us is their character, that never die spirit that they live their lives with! It is one of the reasons why we love this sport.

Roxanne Modafferi is a great example of the best MMA has to offer. She is by all accounts, a wonderful person who should be proud of the amazing career she has had. It is extremely rare to have a professional career that spans almost 20 years. Remarkable.

But this is the UFC, and there are no easy fights in the UFC. And oh boy – is the UFC giving Roxanne a difficult fight to end her MMA career. Casey O’Neill is 24 years old and 8-0 in her pro MMA career and between her pro and amateur career, she has a finishing rate of nearly 80%! This is nearly double the average for that weight class.

King Casey O’Neill is an absolute monster. She is relentless and smothers her opponents. She will chain wrestle, and once she gets on top, she seems impossible to move. I wasn’t sold on her initially, but I am becoming really interested in seeing how far she can go. She might be a tough style matchup for the champ, Valentina Shevchenko. Something to watch for.

Roxanne will have one more attempt to display her warrior spirit to the world in the octagon, and she is being given a great chance to do so against the rising contender Casey O’Neill. Thank you, and congratulations on an amazing career, Roxanne!

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