“The Happy Warrior” Roxanne Modafferi’s life has certainly changed since appearing on the historic Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter. The WMMA pioneer has now repatriated, moving from Japan back to her native United States and settling in Las Vegas. Now calling Syndicate MMA her training home, Roxanne is now signed to Invicta FC and training hard while waiting for the call to see if she will be on their next event.
“It’s kind of vague right now, they’re still planning stuff, so everything’s pretty vague. I’ve heard a bunch of different rumors, but nothing’s set. I do have a few people that I want to rematch. Some day, I’m hoping to fight Rosi Sexton again. And also Takayo Hashi. I don’t feel like I performed as well as I can, so I’d like another crack at them.”
Both the original fights with Sexton and Hashi occured at flyweight during Modafferi’s time in Japan, a place where weight-cutting was not as prevalent as it is in North America. But does she feel that being at an American gym, where the practice is commonplace, will help her make the cut to 125 lbs. without damaging herself?
“Yes, because now I know what I’m doing! I’m not just going to diet away my body, but I’m going to make sure do it properly with the water weight reduction and water loading, and all that jazz. There were some people in Japan doing it, like wrestlers but not many.”
Syndicate MMA has been a boon to many fighters, Modafferi being one of them. She has been able to get time with coaches that she feels are really helping her to improve her game.
“I train my striking with (Syndicate head coach) John Wood, he’s awesome! I get time in with Mike (Pyle), he’s been working with me a little bit lately before sparring. He’s showing me his ninja moves! In addition to a few privates, he also teaches class now and then, which is pretty awesome.”
Roxanne is not just a trainee at Syndicate, though. She’s also a teacher.
“Yes, that’s right, I teach kids classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Jiu jitsu. It’s fun! It’s a challenge, because they’re all at different levels, but kids will be kids. It makes me happy to be around them. It cheers me up if I’m down, or makes me happier if I’m happy!”
In addition to being a fighter and now a jiu jitsu instructor, Roxy is also looking at a writing career. With one book – Memoirs of a Happy Warrior – already published, she is now writing for us at MMASucka.
I’ve been wanting to get a freelance writing job, and then I found MMASucka on Twitter. So I asked, “Hey, would you like to have me as a writer?” And they said “Awesome!” (Editor’s note: We did say that.)
Outside of mixed martial arts, Roxy is also a big anime fan. After all, one of her inspirations that drove her to take up martial arts was Dragon Ball.
“Right now I’m watching Bleach! I had started it many years ago in college, and as you know I like to watch a lot – especially with long series – watch a lot and then switch over after I get tired of it, so I go to a different one. I think I went from Naruto, to One Piece, to Bleach, back to Naruto, back to One Piece, and then other ones. So I’m finally rediscovering my love of Bleach, but I’m got a little tired of that again, so I’m going to watch a few more things before I go back… Man, there’ve been sequels to my past favorites so before I get in to too much new stuff- Ooh! I watched Attack on Titan, that was a new one. Then I’m going to watch Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and then Hellsing: Ultimate. I’ve actually become less tolerant of violence over the years, as amazing as that sounds, so I hope that I can stomach all the blood!”
“The Happy Warrior” does not have any fights lined up, but stay tuned to MMASucka.com for when that happens, and for more articles from Ms. Modafferi.
